jnr/^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



©fjniu--- ©nin^riglit fa.- 

Slielf„L.£/-TS 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



State Education 



FOR THE PEOPLE 



IN 



America, Europe, India, and Australia 



WITH PAPERS ON 



The Education of Women, Technical Instruction, and 
Payment by Results 





"ywsT) ^^-^ 



/ 



SYRACUSE, N. Y. 

C. W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHEE 

189S 



Copyright, 1895, by C. W. Babdbbn 



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CONTENTS 



PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY vii 

PART 

I.— ANCIENT CIVILISATION AND MODERN EDUCATION- 
INDIA. By Sir William Wilson Hunter. K.C.S.I., &c., 
President of the Indian Education Commission - - I 

II.— ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IN ENGLAND. By Edward M. 

Hance, LL.B., Clerk to the Liverpool School Board - 25 

III.— STATE EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND - - - 44 

IV.— NATIONAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND - - - 56 

v.— THE ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL SYSTEMS OF ELE- 
MENTARY EDUCATION COMPARED - - - 74 

VI.— WESTERN STATE EDUCATION— THE UNITED STATES 
AND ENGLISH SYSTEMS COMPARED. By the Rev. E. 
F. M. Maccarthy, M. a., Head Master of King Edward's Gram- 
mar School, Five Ways, Birmingham, and Vice-Chairman of 
the Birmingham School Board - - - - 82 

VII.— NOTES ON EDUCATION IN CANADA AND AUSTRALIA. 

Same Author ...... i05 

VIIL— NOTE ON COMMERCIAL EDUCATION - - 113 

IX.— THE EDUCATION AND STATUS OF WOMEN. By Mrs. 

Emily Crawford - - - - . . hq 

X.— TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION; AND PAYMENT ON RE- 
SULTS. By Sir Philip Magnus - - - - 133 

XI.— NEW CODE FOR 1890 146 

XII.— EDITORIAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION - - 155 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 163 

INDEX 171 



STATE EDUCATION FOR 
THE PEOPLE, 



INTRODUCTORY. 



No doubt many persons who open these pages will be surprised 
to find that the first subject of which they treat, is one of the most 
dry and hackneyed that could have been selected, but a moment's 
reflection will show that it possesses the most widespread interest, 
and is of universal application. In its modern forms the question 
of Education enters into every phase of human intelligence, and 
into all the conditions of man's welfare and prosperity. It nearly 
affects religion, war, material industries and commerce, abstract 
science, and every form and aspect of civilised life. 

Theologians are wrangling over " secular" or " denominational," 
" free " or " assisted " education ; military authorities abroad and at 
home are trying to make every man in the ranks into a General, or 
at least to teach him to comprehend and use all the improved arms 
and methods by which he is to accomplish the destruction of his 
feUow-men ; capitalists and artisans are watching with anxiety, and 
sometimes with jealousy and apprehension, that " technical " in- 
struction which is to revolutionize their industries, and perhaps 
change their relative spheres of influence ; young men of one 
nationality, aided by superior commercial and linguistic training, 
and by the modern facilities for locomotion, are pressing hard upon 
the less highly favoured youths and men of other lands, and are 
slowly but surely supplanting them in their privileged position. 
The children of artisans and retail traders, in increasing numbers, 
are joining the ranks of teachers, investigators, and inventors ; 
even man's helpmate. Woman, is entering the field as a rival of her 
lord and master, whilst whole peoples who are emerging from bar- 
barism, or beginning to realise the gloom of idolatry and superstition, 
and more particularly those nations which are tasting the first-fruits 
of political freedom, are turning their faces towards the light of 
Western Education for mental guidance and material advancement. 



viii STATE EDUCATION. 

But the vastness and universal application of the subject chosen 
renders its treatment the more difficult, and all that it will be 
feasible to attempt here, is to sketch as accurately as possible, 
though necessarily in a superficial manner, certain representative 
methods of education as they are practised in different civilised 
countries. 

There is one matter, however, which needs explanation, and that 
is the overlapping of some of the articles which is the necessar}^ con- 
comitant of their being the productions of several original thinkers 
writing on closely related subjects. The reader may feel that he has 
cause to complain of the repetition of facts and opinions, which 
would not have occurred if the component parts of the work had been 
the products of a single pen ; but it must be borne in mind that this 
defect is more than counterbalanced by the free play which the 
independent articles have afforded to the thoughts and utterances of 
the different writers, and one of the consequences of this latitude 
will be to make it clear on what phases of the question there is a 
general concurrence of opinion, and to which, therefore, it is desir- 
able that the reader should direct his special attention. 

We propose first to treat of the influence exerted by Western 
education upon the destiny of nations still living under ancient forms 
of civilisation, and as a typical illustration we have selected our own 
great Eastern Dependency, India. Next, we shall deal with the 
subject as it presents itself in the educational systems of the United 
Kingdom, and shall then glance at and compare it with those of 
Continental States, and with the great Republic across the Atlantic. 
In connection with the latter we believe the reader will find many 
new and interesting facts not generally known to Englishmen. Two 
or three subsidiary phases of the question will then be examined, 
commercial, technical, and female education, and if the forthcoming 
Education Code has been introduced into Parliament and has 
assumed a sufficiently definite form, an account of its main features 
will be appended, and some general conclusions on the whole 
subject will be summarised for the guidance of our readers. We 
dare not presume to hope that the opinions expressed in our con- 
cluding remarks will meet with general acceptance, for prejudices, 
habits of thought, and the diversity of economical considerations 
naturally influence the judgment of readers upon a question so 
warmly and widely debated as this one ; but we have endeavoured to 
deal with the subject from the broadest and most impartial point of 
view, and whatever differences of opinion may exist we have no 
doubt the credit will be conceded to us of wishing to further the 
cause of Education, and of desiring to facilitate the formation of a 
correct judgment upon one of the most important questions of this 
or any other age. 



PAKT I. 

ANCIENT CIVILISATION & MODEKN EDUCATION. 



INDIA. 



In this article I shall endeavour to set forth the effects of a 
strongly- constructed and vigorously-enforced system of Western 
instruction upon an Asiatic population. The experiment has heen 
conducted in India over so large an area, an area about equal to 
Europe less Russia ; it has been applied to so many races, geo- 
graphically neighbours, yet presenting widely-separated stages of 
human progress ; and its action has been noted with such con- 
tinuity and care, that it affords a unique opportunity for a scientific 
study of the intellectual, social, and political results. If an accurate 
record existed of an}^ similar experiment throughout the Boman 
Empire — although the j)eople who obeyed that Empire did not 
number one-half the population of the Indian Continent — what a 
flood of light it would shed on man's history during the transition 
centuries, when the old world was passing into the new. 

India is now going through a quicker and more striking metamor- 
phosis. We sometimes hear its marvellous awakening compared to 
the renaissance of Europe four hundred 3'ears ago. But in India 
the change is not only taking place on a greater scale ; it also goes 
deeper. It derives its motive j^ower, moreover, not from the indi- 
vidual impulse of isolated men of genius or of cultured popes and 
princes, but from the might}' centralising force of a Government 
which, as an engine of human unification, has had nothing to com- 
pare with it since the days of Imperial Rome. English Rule in 
India is, however, calmly carrying out processes of consolidation 
that never entered the brain of Roman statesman or emperor. 
While maintaining a policy of cold non-interference towards the rival 
religions, the domestic institutions, and the local usages of the 
Indian peoples, it is silently undermining these ancient separatist 
influences which made for the isolation of races. It has created a 
new nexus for the active intellectual elements in the population : a 
nexus which is beginning to be recognised as a bond between man 
and man and between province and province, apart from the ties of 
religion, of geographical propinquity, or of caste : a nexus inter- 
woven of three strong cords, a common language, common political 
aims, and a sense of the power of action in common — the products 
of a common system of education. 

This process of consolidation has, indeed, become so apparent, 

VOL. I. B 



2 STATE EDUCATION. 

even to passers-by, that the present clanger is rather to over-estimate 
the extent to which the change has taken place, than to overlook it. 
Hasty observers frequentty fail to allow sufficient weight to two 
considerations. First, the immense mass that has to be permeated 
before the whole can be leavened ; and second, the constraining 
influences which have moulded, and are at this moment still further 
moulding, the exotic system of education into indigenous forms. 
"While, therefore, I endeavour to clearly state the efl'ects of Western 
instruction systematically applied to the Indian population, I shall 
not underrate either the inertia of the solid millions with whom it 
finds itself in impact, or the reacting forces of native customs, native 
religions, and native modes of life. 

The tendency of some writers to underrate these reacting influ- 
ences operates in a manner which the}'' had not foreseen. The 
unquestionable progress of India during the past third of a centurj'- 
has been so rapid, as to excite the fears of many sober-minded 
Englishmen who wish well to the Indian peoples. It seems to 
such observers that forces have been set in motion in India which 
are working in a one-sided direction, and without the modifying or 
controlling influences which in Europe have been found needful to 
guide these forces to safe results. They therefore look with doubt 
or suspicion upon the present action of those forces in India, and 
especially upon their political developments. Exaggeration begets 
exaggeration, and while the more enthusiastic friends of India over- 
estimate the actual progress, by underrating the counteracting influ- 
ences ; their English critics over-estimate the dangers of that 
progress from precisely the same cause. 

In place of these opposite and equally one-sided views, I shall 
endeavour to place before the reader an impartial presentment of the 
whole of the influences really at work. He will perceive that pro- 
gress in India is the result, not of any single and overwhelming 
movement, but of a correlation of forces, whose complexity and 
variety contain the elements of check and countercheck necessary to 
the safe and steady advance of races. He will find, in every depart- 
ment of Indian activitj'^, not onl}?- the inertia of vast masses, but also 
the conservative opposition of organised interests and classes. While, 
therefore, the State system of education started as a foreign system, 
consciously introduced from without, it has been profoundly modified 
from the first, and is being still more profoundly modified at the 
present day by Native requirements. Native conceptions, and the 
usages of the Native family life. And although the progress of India, 
under the influence of that system of education, has been rapid 
beyond precedent, it has been accomplished subject to the free 
action and reaction of powerful opposing interests, and in the pre- 
sence of a perpetual inertia which takes the form of deliberate slow- 
ness in Indian social reforms, of caution in industrial development, 
of conservatism in political ideas. 

In order to understand the complex forces now at work in India, 
it will be needful first to summarise the main stages in the construc- 
tion of the chief engine of modern Indian progress— State Education. 
AVestern education in India, as a coherent organised system spread 



RESULTS IN INDIA 3 

over the whole countiy, ma}' be taken to date from Sir Stafford 
Northcote's Despatch of 1854. That Despatch, however, only reared 
the edifice for which the foundations had been already laid. The 
encouragement of education has from time immemorial formed one 
of the recognised functions of government in India. Under the 
Brahman system this function took the form of royal liberality to 
high-caste men of learning. The Buddhist reformation placed both 
education and religion on a more popular basis. The Chinese 
traveller in the seventh century a.d. found the Buddhist monasteries 
still at work, and discharging man}' of the duties of a system of 
public instruction. After the Muhammadan conquest of India, the 
Mosques became the centres of educational activit}^, and were sup- 
ported by imperial or local grants of land. 

The East India Compan}', in the last centmy, succeeded to the 
educational as to the other functions of the Native governments. It 
maintained existing educational endowments, and in 1781 Warren 
Hastings established the Calcutta Madrasa, or great Muhammadan 
college in Bengal. Ten years later the British Government founded 
and endowed the Sanskrit College at Benares for Hindu philosoph}'' 
and law. The Permanent Settlement of 1793 recognised in per- 
petuity the free grants of land enjoyed b}^ the old Hindu and 
Muhammadan seats of learning scattered throughout the British 
dominions. Down to 1811 the Court of Directors entertained 
proposals for the establishment of further institutions on the strictly 
ancient lines. But the Charter of 1813 gave a new direction to the 
educational activity of the British Government of India. Hitherto 
its efforts had been directed to the reproduction of the traditional 
models bequeathed by the Native rulers. It held that it discharged 
its duty if it provided the Hindu community with colleges for the 
study of the Sastras, and the Muhammadans with schools for the 
study of the Kuran. 

Meanwhile the wishes of the Native communities had outstripped 
the programme of the Government. Tliey were no longer content 
with the curriculum of their traditional lore, whether Sanskrit or 
Arabic. They desired that their children should eat of the fruit of 
the tree of Western knowledge, and learn the English tongue. The 
Charter of 1813 gave an impulse to these new ambitions by provid- 
ing that a sum of Rs. 100,000 should be annually expended on 
education from the Public Revenues. But it was not until ten 
years later that the Indian Government, under pressure of Par- 
liamentary enquiries, missionary bodies and non-ofhcial school- 
societies, organised measures for giving effect to this provision of 
the Charter. 

For meanwhile non-of&cial agencies of education were springing 
up in India, and were making their influence felt upon the Govern- 
ment. As far back as 1790 the Society for the Promotion of 
Christian Knowledge opened a school for Natives in Southern India, 
a school which still flourishes as St. Peter's College at Tanjore. In 
the Western Presidency, the Bombay Education Societ}^ supported 
by voluntar}^ contributions, undertook in 1815 the education of the 
poor in the Presidency-town and adjoining districts. In Bengal, 

B 2 



4 STATE EDUCATION. 

certain wealthy native citizens of Calcutta, in 1817, opened the 
Hindu College for the education in English of children of the higher 
castes. The School Book Society, estahlished in the same year,, 
undertook the preparation of class-books in English and the ver- 
naculars. In 1819, a more ambitious project was started by the 
Calcutta School Society for establishing schools, both English and 
vernacular, throughout the country. At length, in 1823, the Indian 
Government, under the influence of these and other educational 
movements among the non-official community, organised in Calcutta 
a Committee of Public Instruction, composed of eminent officials,, 
for the diffusion and control of education. 

In this Committee, as indeed throughout India at that time, two 
educational parties were strongly represented. One party adhered 
to the ancient lines laid down by the Native Governments and 
desired that Sanskrit and Arabic learning should form the staples of 
higher education. The other party believed that the time for that 
old-world learning had gone by, and that the object of State Educa- 
tion under British rule should be to impart Western knowledge in 
the English tongue. The more intelligent classes of the Natives- 
took the latter view. The Government officials, true to the tra- 
ditional models handed down from the Mughal Empire, clung to the 
former. In 1824 the Committee of Public Instruction founded the 
Sanskrit College in Calcutta, notwithstanding a powerfully signed 
memorial of the leading natives, headed by Raja Rammohan Roy, 
who begged that the institution might be for English and not for 
Sanskrit teaching. This view gradually spread throughout the 
intelligent sections of tlie native community, and at last enabled it to- 
force the hand of Government. The Natives were aided by the 
missionary bodies and non-official school societies, and before the 
Committee of Public Instruction had been at work for twelve years,. 
the native view of the extreme importance of English teaching had 
prevailed. Macaulay's famous Minute in 1835 merely put an end to 
the deadlock to which the obstinacy of certain of the officials in the 
Committee had given rise. But before Macaulay set foot in India 
native opinion had declared so strongly for English teaching, in 
place of the old traditional learning, that Macaulay's eloquent. 
Minute merely played the part of the shout at which the walls 
of Jericho fell. The memorial of the Native community in Calcutta. 
in favour of an English rather than a Sanskrit College in 1823 had 
at length borne its fruits ; and it is important to observe that, from 
the very commencement. State Education in India has been power- 
fully, although at first slowly, influenced by Native views and Native 
wishes. From the first, too, there had been a powerful conservative 
party among the Indians themselves who clung to their traditional 
past, and a growing party of progress who looked forward to the 
British future. 

The decision, in 1885, in favour of Enghsh Teaching, as the 
medium of Public Instruction in India, was, however, a decision 
arrived at on a false issue. The true alternative was not as between 
the classical languages of India, and English, but as between 
English, the Indian classical languages, and the Indian vernaculars. 



RESULTS IN INDIA. 5. 

This had become apparent to the native leaders and to the mission- 
aries, even before 1835. About that year Mr. Adam drew up his 
admirable report upon the indigenous village schools of Bengal, and 
four years later the Governor- General reconsidered and expanded 
the decision of 1835 upon the broader lines indicated by Mr. Adams' 
report. In 1839, Lord Auckland laid down the three principles 
which have since regulated State Education in India. First, that 
existing institutions for the study of the classical Indian languages 
and ancient literature of India should be kept up in full efficiency. 
Second, that English-teaching institutions should be established for 
education in European literature, philosophy, and science, with 
English as the medium of instruction. Third, that in the lower 
schools, the vernaculars of India should be combined with English, 
and that provision should be made for teaching in both. 

On the basis thus laid down in 1839, considerable progress was 
made during the next fifteen years. But it gradually became 
apparent that even this broader basis was not a sufficiently soUd one 
for the effective education of India. A necessity for penetrating still 
deeper made itself felt, and enlightened men in India determined to go 
to the root of the matter by taking the vernacular schools as the founda- 
tion of Public Instruction. Among the foremost of such men, Mr. 
Thomason Avill ever be honourably remembered. Lord Dalhousie 
was so impressed with the useful work done by his vernacular schools 
in the North- Western Provinces, that, about the year 1852, he urged 
their extension upon the Home Government. Two 3'ears later Sir 
Stafford Northcote responded by his great Despatch ; and the Court 
of Directors, deliberately accepting education as a State duty in 
India, laid down with fulness and precision the principles which were 
to guide the Indian Government in the performance of this task. 
The Despatch of 1854 still forms the Charter of Education in India. 
It was reaffirmed in 1859 by the Secretary of State shortly after 
India had passed to the Crown ; and it formed the ground-work 
of the subsequent developments effected by the Indian Education 
Commission in 1883. 

This Despatch constituted a separate Department of Public 
Instruction in every province of India. It articulated a regular gra- 
dation of institutions, starting from the vernacular schools, and 
passing through the Anglo-vernacular schools, upwards to the colleges 
and the universities. At the lower end, it enforced the necessity of 
increased attention to vernacular teaching as the basis of elementary 
education. At the upper end it provided for the estabUshment of 
universities as the cope-stone of the whole system. The English 
language was fixed once and for ever as the medium of instruction 
in the higher branches, and the Indian vernaculars in the lower. 
English was to be taught wherever there was a demand for it, but 
it was not to be substituted for the vernaculars in the elementary 
instruction of the people. While existing institutions for the study 
of the classical languages of India were to be maintained, an effective 
machinery was created for bringing useful and practical knowledge 
within the reach of the masses, by means of a great network of ver- 
nacular schools. English became definitely the medium of higher 



6 STATE EDUCATION. 

instruction, and the language of the future for the more highly 
educated sections of the populations. 

To Lord Dalhousie helongs the double honour of having urged 
the importance of vernaciilar teaching, and of introducing the modern 
Department of Public Instruction in 1854, which finally accepted 
vernacular teaching as the basis of State Education in India. The 
gTeat Pro-Consul regarded the new system Avith as much pride and 
enthusiasm as if it had been altogether his oAvn creation. Itts only 
fear was that its scope was so extensive that it would be difficult for 
a time to give it full effect. This anticipation proved correct. The 
more conspicuous features of the edifice were promptty constructed, 
and even the Mutiny year, 1857, saw the Acts pass through the 
Indian Legislature for establishing universities at Calcutta, Bomba}- 
and Madras. But, as we shall see, many years elapsed before the 
solid foundations of the system were finally laid. For underlying 
the vernacular schools recognised by the Department were the indi- 
genous schools of the people. Splendid as were the results of the 
Despatch of 1854, those results proved for a time to be one-sided, 
from three causes which, although not apparent at first, gradually 
asserted themselves. As regards higher education, the State system 
tended to centralise intellectual progress at the three Presidency 
towns, and in the provinces of which they formed the capitals. As 
regards lower education, it failed to adequately incorporate the 
ancient and widelj^' diffused agenc}' of the indigenous schools of India. 
In every grade of education it led the people to trust too much to 
official action and to Departmental aid, instead of to private 
effort. 

Yet the results were from the outset sufficiently striking. The 
new Department fairly started in 1855, and during the next fifteen 
years it was allowed to develope on the lines laid down in 1854 and 
reasserted in 1859, with little interference from without. In those 
fifteen years it more than doubled the ascertained school attendance 
in India : from 923,780 pupils in 1855 to 1,894,823 in 1870.* The 
increase, however, was not alone one of numbers. The character 
of the instruction also underwent a significant change. In 1855, 
the Department found onl}' 33,801 pupils in the secondar}' schools ; 
that is to say in the rank of institutions midway between the primary 
schools and the Arts Colleges. It is the boys in these secondary 
schools who form the material from which the Arts Colleges and the 
Lidian Universities derive the main body of their students. During 
the first fifteen years of State education on the lines laid down in 
1854, this class of pupils was multiplied four-fold, to 128,708 in 1870. 

The rapid increase of the more highl.y educated youth told at once 
upon the attendance at the Professional Colleges. The number of 
young men desiring to enter the learned professions in the modern 
sense of the word increased three-fold, from the petty number of 
912, in 1855, to 2,826 in 1870. The attendance in the Normal 
Schools and Classes, that is to say, in the institutions for pro- 

* These numbers reprcseut the attendance in all known institutions, Departmental, 
Aided, and Extra-Departmental. 



RESULTS IN INDIA. 7 

fessional training below the grade of the Professional Colleges, had 
multiplied twenty-seven fold, from 197 in 1855 to 5,3G8 in 1870. 
The number of students in the ordinary Arts Colleges increased but 
slightly during the same period. The three universities did not 
make much progress until the years following 18G0, and their full 
effects were not developed during the fifteen years at present 
under review. Broadly speaking, the first fifteen years of State 
Education in India, upon the lines laid down in 1854, greatly 
increased the demand for professional training, and created at 
the same time a greatly increased reserve of educated youth, who 
were destined to crowd into the Arts Colleges during the sub- 
sequent period. 

But those fifteen years disclosed another and more striking 
feature. The Department of Public Instruction, in the first vigour 
and self-confidence of innnaturity, attempted to monopolise the 
whole area of Indian education. The figures for 1855 show that it 
started with only G7,5()9 pupils in every grade of institution, 
Departmental and Aided, from the colleges down to tlie primary 
vernacular schools ; and 850,211 in "Extra-Departmental" schools, 
which, although included in the returns, were outside the sphere of 
official action. During its first fifteen years, the Department 
brought members of the " Extra-Departmental " schools under its 
management. Accordingly, in 1870, the returns sliow an increase 
of twelve-fold in the Departmental and Aided schools, wJiile the 
attendance in Extra-Departmental schools did not increase by one- 
fourth. 

The three immediate effects of State Education in India may 
therefore be sununarised as follows. First, an enormous increase 
in the number of young men desirous of a professional education, 
and a rush into the Professional Colleges and Normal Schools. 
Second, an equally significant increase in the reserve body of boys 
educated up to the standards which in India lead them to be 
ambitious of entering the learned i)rofessions. Third, great 
activity by the Department in bringing the Extra-Departmental 
schools within its system, and thus endeavouring to stereotype 
Indian education in uniform official moulds. 

These results are the obvious conclusions derived from the 
official returns. But there were other results less obvious, yet 
of perhaps even greater importance in the development of the Indian 
peoples. Almost everywhere it was found that the Hindu popula- 
tion seized with avidity on the opportunities aff'orded by State 
Education for bettering themselves in life ; while the Muhanunadan 
community, excepting in certain localities, failed as a whole to do 
so. State Education thus put the finishing stroke to the influence 
of the Muhammadans, as the former ruling race in India. That 
position they had iidierited from the time of the Mughal Empire, 
and during the first period of the Company's administration they 
still held an undue proportion of official posts. In the last century, 
Musalman Collectors gathered the Company's land tax in Bengal. 
Musalman Faujdars and Glultwals officered its police. A great 
Musalman Department, with its head-quarters in the Naw^b 



8 STATE EDUCATION, 

N^zim's palace at Murshidabad, and a network of Musalman 
officials over every district in Lower Bengal, administered the 
criminal law. Musalman jailors kept in ward the prison popula- 
tion of Northern India. Kazis or Muhammadan doctors of law 
presided in the civil and domestic courts. When the Company 
first attempted to administer justice by means of trained English 
officers in its Bengal possessions, the Muhammadan Law Doctors 
still sat with them, as their authoritative advisers on points of 
law. The Code of Islam remained for many purposes the law 
of the land, and the ministerial and subordinate offices of govern- 
ment continued to be the almost hereditary proj^erty of the 
Musalmans. 

During the fifty years preceding the organization of State Instruc- 
tion in 1854, this monopoly had been subjected to serious inroads. 
The Cornwallis Code, and the construction of a British system of 
Indian Law, opened the judicial and Revenue Departments in Bengal 
to Hindus and Musalmans alike. The substitution of the vernacular 
languages for Persian in the Courts accelerated the change. The 
Hindus began to pour into every grade of official life ; and the State 
system of education in 1854 completed the revolution. By 1871 
there were only 92 Musalmans to 681 Hindus holding gazetted 
appointments in Lower Bengal — the province which, a hundred 
years previousl}^ was officered by a few Englishmen, a sprinkling of 
Hindus, and a multitude of Muhammadans. 

A similar change had taken place in the only secular profession 
which was then considered open to well-born Musalmans, namely 
the law. Medicine, until the creation of the present system, fell 
under a difierent category. The list of Pleaders of the High Court 
of Calcutta, which I examined in 1869, dated from 1834, and dis- 
closed the following results. Of the surviving Pleaders of 1834, 
one was an Englishman, one a Hindu, and two were Musalmans. 
Down to 1838, the Musalmans continued almost as numerous as the 
Hindus and English put together. Of the Native Pleaders admitted 
to the High Court between 1845 and 1850 inclusive, the whole sur- 
vivors in 1869 were Musalmans. 

With the organisation of State Education in 1854, and with the 
educational activity which immediately preceded its introduction, 
the scene changed. Different tests of fitness were exacted, and a 
new order of men came to the front. The list showed that out of 
240 Native Pleaders admitted from 1852 to 1868, no fewer than 239 
were Hindus and only one survivor was a Musalman. Passing to 
the next grade in the profession, the attorneys, proctors and 
solicitors of the High Court of Calcutta, on the side of Original 
Jurisdiction, there were in 1869 twenty-seven Hindus and not one 
Musalman. Among the rising generation of articled clerks there 
were twenty-six Hindus and again not one Musalman. Alike there- 
fore in higher official employments, and in the higher practice 
of the law, the Muhammadans had fallen out of the race in Bengal 
before the end of the first fifteen years of State Education on the 
lines laid down in 1854. 

But their exclusion was not confined to the more lucrative avoca- 



RESULTS IN INDIA. 9 

tions. It mattered not to what department of the legal profession I 
tm-ned, the result was the same. In the office of the Registrar of 
the High Court of Calcutta there were in 1869 seventeen employes 
of sufficient standing to have their names published. Six of them 
were Englishmen or East Indians, eleven were Hindus, and not one 
was a Musalman. In the Receiver's Office, four names were given, 
two Englishmen and two Hindus, but no Musalman. In the office 
of the Clerk of the Crown and the Taxing Officer were four English- 
men and five Hindus, but no Musalman. In all the nooks and 
crannies of the law, in the Offices of Account, the Sheriff's Office, 
Coroner's Office, and Office of Interpreters, twenty names were 
given, eight Englishtnen, eleven Hindus, and one Musalman — the 
sole representative of the Muhammadan population (numbering 
21 millions in the Lower Provinces), and he, a poor Maula on six 
shillings a week. I have confined ni}^ scrutiny to the gazetted public 
appointments in Lower Bengal, and to the legal profession in 
Calcutta, because it was scarcely a century before that the English 
received over the government of these provinces, in 1765, from the 
Muhammadan Nawab Nazim and from a Muhammadan administra- 
tion. In Bengal Proper, moreover, with Calcutta as its capital, the 
Muhammadans actually exceed the Hindus in number (1881) ; and 
they amount to nearly one half of the Hindu population throughout 
the whole of the Lower Provinces. I would be careful, however, to 
guard the reader against generalising from the statistics of individual 
provinces as to the facts for all India. 

Nor do I put forward State Education as the sole factor in pro- 
ducing this clisastrous result to the Muhammadans. For a closer 
scrutiny shows that many other causes co-operated. But the new 
system of Public Instruction, and the eagerness with which the 
Hindus availed themselves of it, was the most conspicuous cause, 
and gave an impulse to other causes which rendered them irresistible. 
A deep despondency spread among the Muhammadans throughout 
the Lower Provinces. Their ancient cherished system of religious 
education, based upon Persian, Arabic, and the Kurun, ceased 
definitely to enable them to win their way in professional or official 
life. In some cases, despondency settled into disaffection, and com- 
bined with other motives to intensify the general feeling of dislike to 
our rule, which culminated in the Wahabl State Trials from 1865 to 
1870. " I attribute the great hold which Wahabi doctrines have 
on the mass of the Muhammadan peasantry," wrote the Govern- 
ment officer in charge of the chief Wahabi prosecution, " to our 
neglect of their education." I do not go so far as this. But it is 
certain that the Muhammadans in many parts of India became con- 
vinced that the new system of Public Instruction, with the new tests 
of fitness which it created for candidates for public employments and 
for professional life, was distinctly favourable to the Hindus, and 
distinctly unfavourable to their own community. " All sorts of 
employment, great and small," v^voie the Diirhin, a Calcutta Persian 
newspaper, in July 1869, " are being gradually snatched away from 
the Muhammadans, and bestowed on men of other races, particularly 
the Hindus." 



10 STATE EDUCATION. 

" Is it any subject for wonder," wrote the Chief Secretary to the 
Government of India in the Home Department, " that they have 
held aloof from a s^ystem which, however good in itself, made no 
concession to their prejudices, made in fact no provision for what 
they esteemed their necessities, and which was in its nature unavoid- 
ably antagonistic to their interests, and at variance with all their 
social traditions ? The educated Muhammadan, confident in his old 
training, sees himself practically excluded from the share of power 
and of the emoluments of Government which he had hitherto almost 
monopolized, and sees these and all the other advantages of life pass 
into the hands of the hated Hindu. Discontent — a feeling if not of 
actual religious persecution, j^et of neglect on account (indirectly) of 
his religious views — has filled the minds of the better educated. 
Their fanaticism, for which ample warrant can always be found in 
the Kuran, has been hotly excited, until at last there is danger that 
the entire Muhammadan communit}' will rapidly be transformed into 
a mass of disloyal ignorant fanatics on the one hand, with a small 
class of men highly educated in a narrow fashion on the other, 
liighlj'' fanatic, and not unwarrantably discontented, exercising an 
enormous influence over their ignorant fellow-Muhammadans." I 
do not unreservedly endorse these words : but they show the views 
of an English official in one of the highest posts, as to the effects of 
fifteen j-ears of State Education in Bengal. 

Those effects were not, however, confined to the depression of the 
Muhammadans and the exaltation of the Hindus as a whole. It 
was speedily discovered that two particular races of the Hindus were 
the chief gainers by the change, one in the South and the other in 
the North of India. In the South the Marathas came strongh^ to 
the front. This Hindu population, or rather organisation of castes, 
had been for practical purposes the ruling race from whom the 
British conquered Western India. The Maratha Confederacy gave 
the death-blow to the Mughal Empire before the East India Company 
came upon the scene as a military power. It was the Marathas 
who frustrated the life project of the great Emperor Aurangzeb 
for the conquest of Southern India. It was they who broke up his 
armies and insulted his dying distress. During the feeble rule of 
his successors they spread over the Mughal dominions, and harried 
its provinces from the Deccan to Lower Bengal. In the end they 
made themselves masters of the Mughal capital, and it was from the 
hands of the Maratha conquerors that the British armies rescued 
the miserable blind old prisoner whom, at the beginning of this 
century, we saluted as Emperor of Delhi. The Marathas were 
essentially a governing race, with a military organisation which 
taxed the utmost force of the British power to break it, and with 
talents for administration that quickly reasserted themselves under 
British rule. 

The new system of State Education gave them, in the middle of 
the present century, a fresh lease of power. The two other races 
of Southern India, the Tamil and Telugu, although possessed of 
high qualities, practical and intellectual, did not disclose at first the 
same plasticity in availing themselves of English Public Instruction. 



RESULTS IN INDIA. il 

The Marath^ Brahmans after some natural struggle with their 
hereditary caste feelings, seized upon the new opportunity for en- 
grossing the offices of the subordinate administration. They 
crowded into the official employments, not onl}^ throughout their 
home-country in Bombay, but spread themselves far and wide, 
from the districts of Madras, throughout all Western India and 
the Central Provinces, northwards as far as Sind. In this, as 
in other developments, the causes had been at work long before 
the introduction of Public Instruction on the lines of 1854. But 
the new system gave a fresh impulse to the aptitudes of the 
Marathas, and has made them the conspicuous race in the present 
political movements of Southern India, as they were in its former 
administration. 

In the North of India a very different race rushed into the fore- 
ground. The Bengalis had onl}^ a history of conquest, and their exist- 
ence during centuries has been a long and painful struggle against 
a malarious climate. I speak here of the Bengalis of the Delta, and 
especially of the districts around Calcutta, for it is to this popula- 
tion that the term is correctly applied. The great provinces of 
Lower Bengal, with their 66 millions of people, contain as healthy 
districts and as vigorous populations as can be desired. But the 
Bengali whom the Englishman in Calcutta, from Macaulay down- 
wards, has seen and described is the Bengali of the Delta. He is 
the survival of the fittest among a race preyed upon by fen fever and 
the bacteria which have their home in drying up tropical swamps. 
The staple food of the Bengali, rice, seems also to develope a less 
muscular frame than the wheat and millets of the interior provinces. 
Nevertheless, he is a true survival of the fittest in a long and 
homicidal struggle between man and nature. 

His slender supple body is capable of protracted labour, if not 
of too severe a nature. His mind is many sided, prehensile of 
new ideas, yet sobered by a traditional reverence for the past. 
With a deep-seated love for his own homestead, he has been accus- 
tomed by economic necessities to seek subsistence or emplo^anent at 
a distance from his native village. He is not only quick-witted, but 
he endures the strain of continuous brainwork with a quiet unob- 
trusive efficiency, which outlasts the more attractive energy of man}' 
of the finer physical races of India. To produce the present 
Bengali of the Delta, millions of families have become extinct in the 
struggle with the climate ; and the survival is eminently equipped 
with the race qualities which enable Man to contend against un- 
favourable natural surroundings. 

With the establishment of the British ascendanc}'-, the Bengali at 
length found his chance. Protected from the rough invasion of the 
peoples of Northern India, and situated in close proximity to the 
head-quarters of the British Grovernment, the Bengali quickly took 
the measure of his new rulers, and made himself useful to them. 
It was he who began the process of ousting the Muhammadans from 
the administration. It was he who enabled us to carr}^ out our first 
efforts at judicial and revenue reforms. In all the series of bene- 
ficent administrative changes, by which the Lower Provinces with 



12 STATE EDUCATION. 

tlieir 66 millions of people have been transferred from a misgoverned 
corner of the Delhi Empire, into a peaceful and prosperous British 
eonntrv, the Bengali has proved himself the right-hand man of the 
English Government. When we boast ourselves of the progress of 
Northern India under British Rule, we ought to remember that the 
Bengali has been both a principal instrument of that progress, and 
its most conspicuous i:>roduct. 

Especially was this the case in regard to the measures Avliich Lord 
Dalliousie took in the middle of the present century with a view to 
tJie material development of India. When Lord Dalhousie estab- 
lished the half-ana postage, which is now equivalent to a halfpenny 
post, for the whole Indian Empire, Bengalis began to spread over 
Xortheru India, as the most elfective agency for giving elfect to the 
reform. When he started telegTaphs, they supplied the material for 
the sharpest telegTaph signallers and clerks. When he laid the 
foundation of the Indian railway system, the Bengalis filled the 
railway ofiices throughout many provmces. All these great schemes 
were introduced during a short period preceding 1854. The creation 
of the new system of Public Instruction in that year gave a power- 
ful impetus to the administrative ascendency which the Bengalis 
were already beginning to acquire in Xorthern India. The aid 
which the Government obtained from them for the efiicient and 
economical carrying out of its schemes can scai-cely be overrated. 
But their success made them the most unpopular race in all Northern 
India. The stalwart peoples of the North- West and the Punjab 
saw with disgust the old course of invasion reversed, and a host 
of slender-bodied, quick-witted, soft-mannered men advancing up 
the Gaiigetic vaUey. From Calcutta to Peshawar there v^-as a 
Bengali faction in every Secretai-iat. Bengalis sat on half tlie 
stools in the telegraph offices, and for a time supphed almost the 
whole native stall" on the railways, above the gTade of a navvy or a 
pointsman. 

Fifteen years of State Education on the lines laid down in 1854, 
had thus led to important results both economic and ethnical in 
India. The professions were already overcrowded, the candidates 
for Government Service gTeatly exceeded the demand, the old ruling 
race of Muhammadan India believed itself rumed by the new 
system of Pubhc Instruction, while certain of the Hindu races were 
miduly engrossing the administration throughout large areas of the 
country. It became apparent that Western instruction was pro- 
ducing not only a redistribution of employments, but also an up- 
heaval of races. While these were the external results of Educa- 
tion, serious defects made themselves felt within the Department 
itself. Its foundation in indigenous instruction was still too narrow 
for the vast superstructiu-e of higher and English education which it 
raised thereon. It also disclosed a tendency to substitute for the 
varied poptilar forms of Indian instruction a single rigid system of 
its own. 

The first great measure which enabled remedies to be provided 
for these defects, was not an educational measure but a financial one. 
In 1870 Lord Mayo, under the powerful influence of the Brothers 



RESULTS IN INDIA. I3 

Stracli<!y, introduced liis dc-centralisation scheme of Finance. 
Under this scheme cacli I'rovince obtained tlie power to devel(jpe its 
education upon lines suited to its own wants. Among the first 
Indian administrators wlio availed themselves of that power was 
Sir George Campl>ell, then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. He 
accepted once and for ever the indigenous schools as the basis of 
the J)ei)ai'tment of Fuldic Instruction in the Ijower Provinces. He 
determined, while improving that basis to respect its popular 
character, and to save it from being forced into a Procrustean 
mould. Under his S3'stem the primary schools in the Lieutenant- 
Governorship of Bengal, recognised by the Department, rose from 
08,500 pui)ils in 1870-71, to 900,000 in 1881-82. While tlie 
Department thus rapidly won the confidence of the existing in- 
digenous schools, an outer circle of them sprang up under private 
Native teachers, in tlie hope of attaining thfit moderate degree of 
efficiency which would entitle them to grants-in-aid. 

Other provinces followed in the same judicious lines. The effort 
to establish Public Instruction upon the actual educational wants of 
the mass of the people, steadily carried out during the past twenty 
years, has borne rich results. How important these results have 
])roved, may be judged from the state of a backward i)rovince which 
did not make, or sufficiently persist in, that efi"ort. In 1881 the 
Kducation Department in the Punjab spent close on Rs. 1,400,000 
in educating 105,000 pupils on its own imported methods. At the 
same time the indigenous schools in the Punjab, which received 
neither recognition nor aid from the Department, were educating 
135,384 pupils, (ju their own methods and at their own expense. 
This, as was well said by a witness before the Indian Kducation 
Commission in 1882, " represents the protest of the people against 
our system of education." It gave emphasis to the doubts which 
had been raised as to the justice of levying a tax from the peasant 
cultivators of the Punjab for primary schools, while the Department 
denied any aid to the indigenous jirimar}^ scho(jls which gave the 
kind of education desired by a large mass of the people. 

These doubts, and many others which had arisen during the first 
twenty-five years of State Instruction in India, were laid at rest by 
the Education Commission of 1882. For if the initial measure which 
tended to bring State Kducation into accord with the actual wants 
of the people was Lord Mayo's Financial Scheme of de-centralisa- 
tion in 1870, the measure whicli accomplished the process was 
Lord Ripon's Kducation Commission of 1882-88. This body was 
powerfully constituted of 21 representatives from the various 
sections of tlie community, throughout the j^rovinces of India. 
The Department of Public Instruction, the Missionaries, and Native 
teaching bodies were ably represented upon it. Its main object 
was, while accepting the princijiles laid down in 1854, to ascertain 
the modifications whicli experience had disclosed as necessary for 
the edifice of State Education that had been reared on those prin- 
ciples. It held its central sittings in Calcutta, but also travelled 
over India, carefully examining 193 witnesses in the various 
provinces, and receiving 323 Memorials signed by over 233,000 



14 STATE EDUCATION. 

persons. It embodied the results in a report of 639 folio pages, 
besides copious statistical tables, and formulated its conclusions 
in 220 distinct Becommendations to the Government. These 
Recommendations covered the whole area of Native education in 
India, excepting technical instruction, from the colleges down to the 
indigenous schools. After an elaborate review of them by the 
Government of India, they received, with one or two modifications, 
the sanction of the Secretary of State. They now form the basis 
on which education rests in India, and on which it probably will 
continue to rest during many j^ears to come. 

The task prescribed by Lord Ripon to the Commission was to 
extend primary education, especially upon the methods which the 
people had worl^ed out for themselves. To encourage private 
enterprise in education, and, whenever expedient, to transfer schools 
from the Department to Native management. To stimulate female 
education and to provide means for the instruction of the Muham- 
madan and other backward races. To examine the machinery and 
organisation of the Department of Public Instruction and to in- 
corporate into its system the educational activity of the Muni- 
cipalities, Rural Unions, District Councils, and other public bodies. 
Above all to provide against the danger of rearing up a too 
numerous class highly educated upon foreign methods, without a 
sufficient equipoise of education in the middle and lower classes of 
the people — in short to make higher and lower instruction advance 
together at a more equal pace. 

Of the social and economic consequences of this great reform, I 
shall presently speak. They are only gradually disclosing them- 
selves. But the statistical results were immediate, and they have 
a deep significance. According to the latest Parliamentary Return, 
the total number of pupils has risen from just over 2 millions in 
1880-81, the year preceding the Commission, to %\ millions in 
1888-89, five years after it closed its labours.* This result is 
sujQ&ciently important, but it fails altogether to disclose the signifi- 
cance of the change. For the object of the Commission was not 
alone to increase the total of pupils, but to make their education 
less dependent upon the Government, and in a larger measure the 
work of the people themselves. I have only the complete 
Parliamentary Returns down to the year 1887-88. They exhibit 
the following striking phenomena. While the number of pupils in 
Government Institutions has only increased from 769,074 in 1880- 
81 to 971,904 in 1887-88, the number in Aided Institutions has 
increased from 1,111,843 to 1,703,527; and the number in Private 
and Unaided Institutions from 314,697 to 800,763. If these be the 
results of the Education Commission in the green leaf, what will 
they be in the dry wood ? 

* In this and all subsequent comparisons I follow the returns given in the Blue 
Book entitled " Statistical Abstract relating to British India," presented to both 
Houses of Parliament, and dated 12th September, 1889. The total according to my 
latest information now exceeds 3| millions. As the Parliamentary Keturns do not 
always coincide with those of the Education Commission, I base my comparisons on 
the figures supplied by the Parliamentary Returns. 



RESULTS IN INDIA. 15 

The truth is, that the Kecommendations of the Commission are 
surely and swiftl^y converting the old Departmental system of 
Indian Public Instruction into a national system of education for 
India. The Government in 1882 clearly foresaw that the official 
resources, both in money and men, were wholly inadequate to the 
task. It warned the Commission that in providing for the extension 
of education, "the limitation imposed on the action of Government 
by financial considerations must always be borne in mind." The 
Education Commission accordingly called in the people themselves 
to its aid, with the following remarkable results. While the number 
of pupils has increased in round figures from 2 to 8| millions, and 
while the total expenditure on Indian education has increased in 
round figures from 10 to 19 millions of rupees, the Government 
expenditure on education has actually decreased by Rs. 100,000 from 
1880-81 to 1887-88. The people have made good the balance. 
And they have made it good only to a small extent b}' Local Rates. 
The school fees have doubled during the period, while the sub- 
scriptions and endowments have increased by over sixty per cent. 
Under the strong Recommendations of the Commission, moreover, 
an almost new source of educational income has been developed in 
the shape of Municipal support. During the same short period the 
contributions from the Municipalities to schools have increased by 
more than three-fold. This popular aid has been efi'ective not onlj'- 
in reducing the actual Government Expenditure, but in enforcing 
a more rigid econoni}^ in the cost of Indian education. But at the 
same time, there was no stint. While the number of pupils has 
increased in round figures, according to the Parliamentary Returns, 
from a little over 2 millions, to 3i millions ; the total expenditure 
on their education has increased from 10 to 19 millions of rupees. 

The results have been gained not by a sacrifice of the higher 
branches of education, and in spite of a vast increase of Educational 
Institutions of the most expensive class. The number of candidates 
for the entrance examination, at the Calcutta University has more 
than doubled, from 2,031 in 1881-82, to 4,305 in 1887-88. The 
number of such candidates at the Madras University has nearly 
doubled, from 3,519 to 6,582. Their number at the Bombay 
Universit}^ has increased nearly three-fold from 1,260 to 3,012 during 
the same period. 

Judged by the further results of University teaching, the increase 
is still more striking. The graduates who took their degrees in 
Law at Calcutta (the great Law University of India), have multi- 
plied by close on seven-fold, from 35 in 1880-81, to 238 in 1887- 
88. The gentlemen who took their degree in Medicine at Bombay 
(the great Medical University of India), have increased from 45 in 
1880-81, to an average of 120 during the three years ending 
1887-88. The gentlemen who passed the B.A. examination at 
Madras (a chief Arts University in India), have increased by more 
than three-fold, from 113 in 1880-81, to 437 in 1887-88. 

Nor must it be supposed that the standards of the pass-examina- 
tion in Indian Universities are lower than in England. I have taken 
some pains to arrive at a just estimate of their comparative difficulty, 



1 6 STATE EDUCATION. 

and obtained the views of one of the most distinguished of the 
Indian students who have gone through both systems. Mr. Das 
Gupta, after successful studies at the Calcutta University, came to 
Oxford and took his B.A. with Honours — a "Second Class" in 
his eleventh term, the period allowed being sixteen terms. He was 
awarded an Exhibition from Balliol, and is now reading at that 
College for Honours in Law. He may therefore be taken as a 
trustworthy witness, and as certainly not an unfavourable one to the 
Oxford S3^stem. 

In an elaborate paper which he has kindly drawn up for me, he 
analyses the examinations in the two Univerities. He finds that 
the Entrance Examination at Calcutta corresponds with Resj)onsions 
at Oxford ; the Calcutta First Arts with the Oxford Pass Modera- 
tions ; and the Calcutta Pass B.A. with the Oxford Pass B.A. He 
states that both in regard to the books prescribed and the papers 
set, the Calcutta Entrance Examination is distinctly higher than 
the Oxford Besponsions ; and in regard to the books prescribed, 
higher even than the Pass Moderations at Oxford. As respects the 
final examination, he shows by comparative tables that the Calcutta 
Pass B.A. is very much higher than the Oxford Pass B.A. 
" One might reasonably doubt," he adds " if the Oxford Pass B.A. 
Standard is anj^ wa}^ harder than the Calcutta First Arts Standard." 
As regards, therefore, the Pass examinations, whose numerical 
results I have just stated, there can be no question that the 
enormous increase in the number of graduates of the Indian 
University, represents a wide-spread and bond fide extension in 
higher education. 

That higher education, however, is not the highest. For the 
modern system of specialising in the English Universities carries 
their best men much farther than the Indian system does. Mr. 
Das Gupta, while showing the greater difiiculty and wider scope of 
the Calcutta Pass Examinations, bears testimony to this fact. 
"When we come to the Honour Schools," he sa3^s "we see at 
once that the Oxford standard is infinitely superior to the Calcutta 
standard. There can hardh' be any comparison between the two» 
Oxford turns out specialists : Calcutta merel}'' indicates a few lines 
of study to us to follow up after leaving the University, according to 
our tastes and predilections." 

The reforms in the Indian Education Department, which received 
their authoritative expression in the Report of the Education Com- 
mission, were not, however, confined to the extension of Public In- 
struction. The Commission endeavoured to grapple with the special 
difficulties of bringing education within the reach of certain classes 
of the people. The first of these classes was the female sex. The 
Commission found that there were certain distinct causes of the 
backwardness of female education in India. In the first place, the 
effective desire for education as a means of earning a livelihood, does 
not exist as regards the female population of India. In the second 
place, the social customs of India in regard to child-marriage, and 
the seclusion in which the women of the well-to-do classes spend 
their married life in most parts of the country, put an end to a girl's 



RESULTS IN INDIA. 17. 

school-going in her ninth to eleventh j^ear. In the third place, the 
supply of female teachers is greatly deficient, and the State system 
of female education had therefore to be conducted in a large measure 
by a male staft', a system not in accord with the feelings of the 
people. 

The Commission, having taken evidence on each of these points 
throughout the various provinces in India, drew up, after anxious 
consideration, a series of proposals with a view to meeting each class 
of difficulty. These proposals they formulated into twentj^-seven 
Recommendations to Government, and on those Recommendations 
female Public Instruction in India now rests. During the six years 
which have passed since their adoption by the Government, the great 
impulse given to female education, and the multiplication of the 
various agencies and methods by which it is conveyed, form one of 
the most striking features in the social development in India. 

The other large classes of the population whom the Commission 
found in a backward state as regards Public Instruction were the 
Muhammadans, the aboriginal tribes, and the low castes. For each 
of these the Commission made special provision, after a searching 
enquiry into the actual causes which had prevented their acceptance 
of the State system of education on its previous basis. The Muham- 
madans in particular formed the subject of a completely exhaustive 
enquiry. It was found that the backwardness of the Muhammadans 
in accepting our system of Pviblic Instruction, and their consequent 
exclusion from public offices, the law, and other emplo3aiients 
requiring education, was more or less general : but with two striking 
exceptions. These exceptions were Oudh and the North-Western 
Provinces. The Commission having thus differentiated the problem, 
carefully enquired into the specific causes which had led the Muham- 
madans to accept our system in certain parts of India and to reject 
it in others. The result was a series of eighteen Recommendations 
to Government which went to the root of the matter. The Commis- 
sion were deliberately convinced that it was better to modify the 
equitable but hard and fast lines of Indian Public Instruction, rather 
than to leave so large and important a section of the people outside 
its scope. For example, however highly it might regard the impar- 
tiality of the Public Instruction Department, it deemed it right to 
modifj' that impartiality when it found that the Muhammadans, who 
formed thirty-two per cent of the population in Bengal and Assam, 
had contributed in 1871 only fourteen per cent, to the school 
attendance. 

The Commission not only recommended that special encouragement 
should be given to Muhammadan Institutions, but that special pro- 
vision should be made to meet, what may be called, the Muhammadan 
religious difficulty. " The one object of a young Hindu," they 
pointed out " is to obtain an education which will fit him for an 
official or a professional career. But before the young Muhamma- 
dan is allowed to turn his thoughts to secular instruction, he must 
commonly pass some years in going through a course of sacred 
learning." " The teaching of the Mosque must precede the lessons 
of the school." " The Muhammadan boy, therefore, enters school 

VOL. I. c 



1 8 STATE EDUCATION. 

later than the Hindu. In the second place, he very often leaves 
school at an earlier age," as the Muhammadan parent, being poorer 
than the Hindu parent in a corresponding social position, " cannot 
afford to give his son so complete an education." 

The Commission, while framing their Recommendations for the 
Musalmans " not merel.y with a regard to justice, but with a leaning 
towards generosity," did not disguise the deteriorating influences of 
this polic}^ " Special encouragement to any class," they warned the 
Muhammadans, "is in itself an evil ; and it will be a sore reproach 
to the Musalmans if the pride they have shown in other matters, 
does not stir them np to a course of honourable activity ; to a deter- 
mination that whatever their backwardness in the past, they will not 
suffer themselves to be out-stripped in the future ; to a conviction 
that self-help and self-sacrifice are at once nobler principles of con- 
duct and surer paths to worldly success than sectarian reserve, or 
the hope of exceptional indulgence. We have spoken of the causes ; 
we here accept the fact that, at all events in many parts of the 
country, the Musalmans have fallen behind the rest of the 
population." 

The Indian Muhammadans have taken to heart these wise words. 
Since the enquiries of the Commission they have more generallj^ 
availed themselves of State Instruction, and they have also en- 
deavoured to meet their special requirements b}" an increase of in- 
stitutions of their own. Many of them, however, still hold aloof, 
alike from Western education and from those political movements 
among the Natives of India to which AVestern education gives rise. 
For example, a certain amount of Muhammadan opposition has 
appeared to the largest and best known of those movements, namety, 
the Indian National Congress. But even in such cases when we 
look carefully into the facts, we find that the Muhammadan opposi- 
tion is now of a local and partial character. Thus while certain 
highty respected Muhammadans of the older school, and a section of 
the Bengal Muhammadans whom the Commission found the most 
backward in India have held aloof from the Congress, 3^et the Indian 
Muhammadans throughout many parts of the countr}^ have joined in 
the movement. The number of Musalman representatives who 
would have attended the National Indian Congress of 1888, if the}" 
had maintained a strict ratio to the total Muhammadan population, 
should have been 286 to 937 Hindus. The number of Muhammadan 
delegates Avho actually attended the Congress was 222. It will be a 
happ3^ day for India when the disproportion between the Muhamma- 
dans who ought to be at school, and those who are actuall}^ at school, 
is reduced to so small a percentage ! At the Bombay Congress, held 
in a strongly Hindu and non-Muhammadan presidency, the ratio of 
Musalmans to Hindus was not so equally maintained. 

AVith the further development of education, the aggressive promi- 
nence which individual races obtained is beginning to disappear. 
The non-Maratha provinces of Western India have turned back the 
tide of Maratha invasion and are filling the local posts in the admin- 
istration with men born in their own districts and educated in their 
own schools. The inroads of the Bengali into the North-West and 



RESULTS IN INDIA. 19 

the Punjab have become ahiiost a thing of the past. There is still, 
I believe, a Bengali clique in several of the capitals of those pro- 
vinces, but the Local Departments are now for the most part 
ofticered by local men. The truth is that the Marathas and the 
Bengalis were quick-witted races, who saw their opportunity in the 
new system of State Education on the lines of 1854, and who made 
the most of it, while it lasted. By the Marathas, I here and else- 
where mean chiefly the Maratha Brahmans. They and the Bengalis 
are still among the foremost races of India in intelligence and educa- 
tion, and they take a leading part in political or social movements, 
such as the Congress already referred to. But with the development 
of an autonomous system of education in every separate province, 
the multiplication of local colleges, and the establishment of new 
Universities for the North-West and the Punjab, there has been a 
general levelling up of the other Indian races. The prominence of 
the Manithas and the Bengalis is no longer an odious prominence, 
and their temporar}^ monopoly of official employments has ceased, or 
is disappearing. 

As a matter of fact, the Madras or Tamil races are now taking a 
foremost place in the political movements of India. At the last 
Indian National Congress, three schemes of electoral representation 
were submitted : one from Bengal, one from the Marathcis of 
Bomba}', and one from Madras. It is characteristic of the solidity 
and tenacity of the Tamil race, that the scheme eventually adopted 
by the Indian National Congress was the scheme brought forward 
by the Madras delegates. 

The results of the vast extension of education in India permeate 
every sphere of human activity. In religion, the Indian races are 
under the cautious forms of a respectful orthodoxy, making one of 
the greatest new departures which the world has ever witnessed. 
This new departure is aided by the curious mixture of strength and 
plasticity in Hinduism. The absence of any fixed canon, lilve our 
Christian Bible, enables Hinduism to adjust itself, Avithout any 
appearance of violent change, to the shifting opinions of each age. 
To apply the term idolator, in our popular sense of the word, to an 
educated young Hindu, would now be almost as gross an abuse of 
the term as to apply it to an enlightened member of the Greek or 
Itoman Church. 

The whole body of sacred Sanskrit literature, while venerated as 
a store-house of philosophy, poetry, and law, is dealt with in the 
same historical spirit as that in which we regard the Patristic 
writings or the Talmud. Even the Veda itself has now but few 
remaining defenders of its claim to literal inspiration among the 
educated Hindus. Modern Hinduism is a social organisation and a 
religious confederac}^ It allows any number of new sects, theistic 
or others, to grow up within its own body. It regards with quiet 
humour the minor sects like the Brahma Samaj, which, in theii- youth- 
ful zeal, may think it needful to separate themselves from the general 
community. In the course of a few generations it re-absorbs such 
theistic sects into itself — or into a new development of its old self. 
The old as[gressive use of the term "heathen" in Calcutta or Bombay 

c 2 



20 STATE EDUCATION. 

would now bring an indiscreet Christian within perilous reach of 
certain clauses of the Indian Penal Code. 

The most characteristic feature of Hindu society, next to its 
religion, is perhaps its almsgiving. Its ancient Scriptures and 
modern practice agree in according to acts of benevolence a chief 
function in the scheme of salvation. But between the precepts of 
the ancient Hindu scriptures and the modern practice, a profound 
change has been brought about by Western ideas. The Sanskrit 
sacred writings give special, although not exclusive, value to dona- 
tions to the priestly class. The young educated Hindu, while 
not divesting himself of this duty, has accepted more or less fully 
the doctrines of modern philanthropy. But he maintains that, in 
so doing, he only makes a reversion to the first principle of Indian 
Buddhism, namely, " charity to all men." No appeal for a great 
philanthropic object is now made to the Hindu races without draw- 
ing forth a response. 

Instead of concentrating their almsgiving upon the Brahmans, 
they are devoting it to the erection and maintenance of schools, 
dispensaries, and hospitals, or to a revival of that well-known Hindu 
form of charit}^ the construction of tanks and other useful local 
works. Fifty years ago Lady Dufferin's magnificent project for 
creating a wide organisation of medical aid for the women of India 
would have been met with coldness if not with distrust. Nor is it 
too much to say that the great extension of education recently made 
in India has been made on Western philanthropic principles, and to 
a large extent with donations which fifty years ago would have been 
expended in feeding Brahmans. In this as in ever}'- other depart- 
ment of Indian progress, it would be foolish to exaggerate the extent 
of the change which has yet been effected. But it would be still 
more foolish to overlook the change which is surely and steadil}^ 
taking place. 

The same may be said of the moral changes at work in Hindu 
society. The position of widows in India is still a reproach to the 
country. But the educated Hindus realize that it is a reproach, and 
there is a widespread movement with a view to its amelioration. 
The most conspicuous figure in that movement is a Parsi and not a 
Hindu. And here I take the opportunity of explaining that if I 
have not mentioned the Parsis as a progressive Indian race, it is 
only because of the comparative fewness of their numbers, and of 
the still semi-foreign character in which they are traditionally 
regarded. But although the most eloquent and ardent advocate for 
improving the position of Indian women is a Parsi, his most powerful 
following is among the Hindus themselves. The Hindus, however, 
realize more clearly the difficulties connected with the question. 
They perceive that while the law of India, and the usages of Hindu 
society, maintain the ancient degree of protection given to women, 
it is almost impossible to combine that ancient protection with the 
modern ideas of female freedom of action. You cannot give to the 
same person all the double advantages of a state of pupilage and of 
a state of independence. This is the problem which the educated 
Hindus are now endeavouring to solve. 



RESULTS IN INDIA. 21 

For example, the Hindu widow is regarded as a first charge on 
the Hindu family. Her maintenance is secured to her from the 
labour of her husband's male survivors, and every one who has had 
experience of the working of the Hindu family S3''stem, knows how 
heavy a charge the accumulated female relatives constitute upon the 
resources of the working males. In Hindu families of a wealthier 
class, the Hindu law, throughout most parts of India, gives to a widow 
the usufruct of her husband's w'hole propert}^ if he leaves no son. 
But it does so for the special purpose of continuing the religious 
persona of the husband, and to enable her to perform a life-long 
round of ceremonies for his benefit in the other world. If she 
marries again she passes out of her late husband's family into the 
family of her new husband, and she becomes thereby incapable, 
according to Hindu usage, of performing the very ceremonies for 
the due performance of which she has succeeded by law to her late 
husband's property. The British Legislature in India recognised 
this, and while declaring the Hindu widow free to re -marry, holds 
that by re-marriage she forfeits her interest in her deceased husband's 
estate. 

The educated Hindus perceive that, in order to obtain the consent 
of the mass of their countrymen to an}^ large social reform in the 
position of widows, there must also be a legislative change. I have 
cited only one aspect of the question. But the same necessity for 
alterations in the law underlies the other aspects of Indian female 
life ; from the legal age of marriage onward to the abolition and 
restrictions on re-anarriage. The educated Hindus, while aiding by 
public associations and by eloquent writings in the popular move- 
ment, desire that that movement should have its basis in legal 
reform. I have before me at this moment several such schemes, 
emanating from Hindus. Thus a distinguished Maratha adminis- 
trator, the Raja Sir Madava Rao, K.C.S.I., writes to me under date 
28th January last, forwarding the last version of the scheme of legis- 
lative reform which he has long advocated, "to relieve or mitigate 
the unhappiness of widows, or rather to reduce the chances of 
widowhood." In regard to the position of women. Western ideas 
are bringing about a profound change of opinion among the rising 
generation of educated Hindus — a change to which their leaders are 
endeavouring soberly and cautiously to give practical effect. 

The same caution marks the progress which the Hindus have 
made in the industrial life of India. We are all aware that a 
revolution has been effected in our own days with regard to the 
food supply of England. But we do not yet realize the full 
significance of what has taken place. The great food-producing 
areas of the Western Hemisphere are the Gulf Stream region of 
Europe and the Monsoon region of Asia. The European region, 
as has been admirably shown by Mr. Mackinder, the Reader in 
Geography at Oxford, is the region " blown over by prevalent west 
winds fed with warmth and moisture from the warm surface waters 

of the Atlantic Historically this is the Roman world," with 

a modern population of about 300,000,000 inhabitants. The Mon- 
soon region extends over South-Eastern Asia, with 700,000,000 



22 STATE EDUCATION. 

inhabitants, of whom the most important for practical purposes of 
food production are the 250,000,000 of India. 

These two food-producing areas were, down to our times, kept 
apart by distance and by the difficulties of communication. The 
Suez Canal and the modern improvements in marine engines have 
brought them closer into contact, and will jDrobably bring them still 
more closely. The first races to take advantage of the altered con- 
ditions were the peoples of India. Indian commerce, which in its 
earlier stages consisted of nick-nacks and luxuries, is becoming more 
and more a wholesale trade in staple agricultural produce. Fifty 
years ago the total merchandise exported from India averaged, 
during the five years 1840-44 inclusive, only 14J millions sterling. 
The i^resent exports of Indian agricultural staples — grains, seeds, 
cotton and jute in their various forms, indigo, and tea — alone exceed 
53 millions ; and India's total exports of merchandise now amount 
to 83 millions, of which more than 80 millions are strictly Indian 
produce. These figures are at the conventional rate of exchange. 

The truth is, that the Suez Canal has broken down the geo- 
graphical barrier between the food-producing populations of the 
Monsoon area and the food-consuming populations of the Gulf 
Stream area. How rapidly the process is going on may be esti- 
mated from a single item, wheat. In 1874-75 the export of wheat 
from India was one million cwts. The Parliamentary Return for 
1886-87 gives the export of Indian wheat at 22^ million cwts. 
The trade fluctuates from year to year, but the increase during each 
period of years is most striking ; nor can any man predict the 
dimensions which it may reach as the Indian railways open out 
the countr3\ It has been a main factor in reducing by one-half the 
price of the Englishman's staple food — from over sixty to about 
thirty shillings a quarter. 

This great revolution, while directly the result of cheaper transit, 
has been aided indirectly, but in an important way, hj the intellectual 
progress of the Indian races. The educated Hindus supply the 
working staff of English capital in India. Their cheap and effective 
labour has powerfully assisted the British merchants of Calcutta 
and Bombay in their competition against German and other foreign 
firms, who work on somewhat more economical methods than the 
older English houses. Without a highly skilled Hindu subordinate 
administration, the Indian railwaj^s could not be worked, nor could 
their accounts be kept, with a profit. From the wayside station- 
masters up to the central offices of audit, the English-speaking 
Hindus supply the mass of the Indian railway employes. 

For a time the Indian races, with their characteristic caution, 
confined their commercial attempts to the ordinary operations of 
trade. They bought and sold j)roduce on their own account, while 
their cheap labour as clerks or assistants enabled the British 
merchant to conduct an enormous export business on a low scale of 
charges. But having thus served their apprenticeship to modern 
commerce, the Indian races gradually began to take up the work of 
modern manufacturers. Their old domestic manufactures of the 
hand-loom had been destroyed by the competition of Manchester 



RESULTS IN INDIA. 23 

manufacturers by means of steam-power. The long drawn-out 
agony of that period of ruin among the textile workers of India 
will, I trust, some day be truly told. At the end of it, the Indian 
commercial class resolved to fight Manchester with her own weapons. 
Steam-power mills and factories, built with Native capital, worked 
by Native hands, and controlled by Native firms or by Native 
Boards of Direction, began to raise their chimneys in Bombay, and 
along the banks of the Hugii. They are now springing up in many 
local centres of Native trade. For example, Surat, instead of 
giving its name only to a class of Indian cotton, is pouring out 
thousands of bales of Indian piece goods. When a Calcutta com- 
pany some years ago started a line of river steamers on the Hugli, 
it was found possible to work them almost entirely by Native 
masters. Native engineers, and Native pilots. 

Tliere is one operation of commerce on which the educated 
Natives have long looked with envy, but from which with character- 
istic caution they have hitherto abstained. I refer to the modern 
system of banking. Tlie Native banking firms still pursue, under 
certain modifications, their old method of working with their own 
capital, or with capital obtained in comparatively large sums from 
their friends and relatives. They are now casting wistful glances 
at the English and Scotch system of banking, guaranteed by a 
central body of subscribed capital, but with that caj^ital multiplied 
b}' means of small deposits drawn by a network of branches from 
the agricultural districts. The Government system of Post Office 
Savings' Banks has acted as an object-lesson to them in this de- 
partment of finance. That system rapidly expanded during the 
last five years, for which I possess the Parliamentary returns, from 
76,438 depositors and a balance of 65 million rupees at the end of 
1883-84, to 227,865 depositors and 42 millions of rupees at the 
end of 1887-88. 

There seems a possibility that the English system of banking, based 
upon local branches which draw a multitude of small deposits out of 
the country, will now attract the attention of Native capitalists. When 
that time comes the new industrial era in India will enter on a phase 
of which it is difficult to foresee the result. The great changes 
which have taken place in the Native methods of commerce, and in 
the Native methods of manufactures during the present generation, 
will then find their completion in a change in the Native methods of 
finance. When it is remembered that during the twenty- one years 
ending 1888, India has actually swallowed down 1920 millions of 
rupees worth of gold and silver, it may be imagined what a future 
is thus opened up. Those 1920 millions are exclusive of 370 
million rupees worth of treasure re-exported. The demand for gold 
and silver as coinage has at the same time been relieved by the grow- 
ing popularity of Government currenc}^ notes. The consumption of 
bullion for the arts is small in India, except as jewellery for 
purposes of hoarding. 

It would be a difficult and expensive business for the Anglo-Indian 
financiers to get hold of the accumulated gold and silver in India by 
means of deposit banking in the rural districts. The multitude of 



24 STATE EDUCATION. 

little local branches could be economically worked only by Natives 
of India, and the risks incident to such a business would at first be 
greater than in England. But if the hoarded wealth of India can 
be turned into effective capital for Indian commerce, it will bring 
about a reduction in Indian rates of interest, and an activity in 
Indian manufactures and trade, fraught with consequences of magni- 
tude to the whole civilised world. 

In this very rapid survey of the effects of Western Education in 
India, I feel as if I had only touched the fringe of a great subject. 
Into the political results I am precluded, by want of space, from 
entering. For to deal fajrly and satisfactorily with so vexed a ques- 
tion as the present political movements of the Indian races would 
demand a detailed treatment forbidden to me here. I may therefore 
briefly say that those political movements are the legitimate and 
inevitable result of Western Education in India. The men who 
conduct them are the men to whom in all other respects, intellectual 
and moral, we are accustomed to point as the highest products of 
British rule in India. They are the men who form the natural in- 
terpreters of our rule to the masses of the people. To speak of 
such men, when their activity takes a political direction, as dis- 
affected, would be equally unjust and untrue. For they are the men 
who, of all our Indian fellow-subjects, realise most clearly that their 
interests, present and future, are identifled with the permanence 
of British rule. 

But brief as this survey has unavoidably been, it sufiices to show 
that the present political movements among the Indian races are 
only one aspect of a general advance, moral, intellectual, and in- 
dustrial, that is now going on. The most significant fact connected 
with the late Indian National Congress at Bombay was not its mar- 
vellous assemblage of 1889 representatives from every province of 
India. It was rather that this great gathering for political purposes 
was held side by side witii a still greater meeting in the same city 
for ameliorating the condition of Woman in India — the Social 
Reform Conference attended by 6000 persons, chiefl}'^ Hindus. A 
political movement which is purely political may be wise or unwise, 
but a political movement which forms part of the general advance of 
a people to a higher state of society and to a nobler ideal of domestic 
and individual life, is irresistible. It may be guided, it may be 
moderated, but it must assuredly be reckoned with. 

W. W. HUNTEK. , 



PART II. 

ELEMENTAEY EDUCATION IN ENGLAND.* 

Few persons even in this country not actually connected, in one 
way or another, with the work itself have other than very vague 
ideas as to the system of elementary education which obtains 
among us. One still frequently hears IBoard Schools spoken of as 
if the term were synonymous with "Public Elementary Schools," 
and as if no such things as Voluntary or Denominational Schools 
liad any existence. Again, it is by no means an uncommon thing to 
hear even well informed persons express astonishment at learning 
that the education in Board Schools is not as a rule purely secular. 
It, therefore, is not altogether out of place that a short account of 
that system should be included among the contents of even an 
English Review which aims at dealing comprehensively with the 
subject of State Education. 

Like most of our institutions, our system of elementary education 
is a growth not a creation. It is the resultant of the action, not 
always harmonious, of various forces originating in the very depths 
of our national existence — the outcome of which is a system differ- 
ing in some of its most prominent features from any which is to 
be found elsewhere. For a comprehension, therefore, of those 
peculiar features some knowledge of the history of the system in its 
gradual development is essential. 

Until the commencement of the last century the main, if not the 
sole, provision for the education, elementarj'^ as well as higher, of 
the people in England and Wales was to be found in the so-called 
"Grammar Schools" which were scattered, in greater or less 
numbers, over nearl}^ the whole of the country. These were for the 
most part free, and as in Scotland were attended without distinction 
of class by the children of the surrounding district. The noble 
dream of the Reformers in the 16th centurj', realized to a great 
extent in the kingdom north of the Tweed, that each parish should 
have its school and each school its direct connection with one of the 
Seminaries of higher learning, was in this country almost entirely 
brought to nought b}^ the rapacity of the courtiers of Henry VIII. 
Still, the many schools which in different localities still com- 
memorate the short reign of Edward VI. not only indicated the 
aspirations of the Reformers, but set an example which in happier 
days was largely followed by private benefactors, until by the middle 
of the next century few parts of the country were without some 
educational provision of this kind. Though open to all, however, 
the advantages of these schools were in fact confined almost ex- 
clusively in countr}'^ places to the children of the yeomen and the 

* Vide also Part XI. New Code for 1890.— Ed. 



26 STATE EDUCATION, 

inferior gentiy, and when these classes were, by the rise of com- 
mercial centres, attracted in increasing numbers from the country 
into the towns, the great majority of the Grammar Schools fell into 
decay. 

The crowding of the population into the towns, and the consequent 
need of additional provision in those places for their education, was 
one of the causes which led to the formation, in 1698, of the 
now venerable Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Be- 
ginning in that year with four schools in London and Westminster, 
the operations of the Society extended so rapidly that before twenty 
5'ears had elapsed more than 1,000 schools, of which nearly 120 
were in London or its immediate neighbourhood, had been called 
into existence in different parts of this country and the sister 
island. These schools were entirely free, and in most cases pro- 
vided the children with clothing in addition to education, and not 
infrequently with board and lodging also. In several respects this 
early effort anticipated what we are accustomed to think special 
features of our present system, and, in one instance at least — that 
of manual and industrial training — was somewhat in advance of that 
system. Security for efficiency was taken by means of regular 
inspection and periodical examination ; the necessities of industry 
were reconciled with those of education by means of a half-time 
system ; and the special needs of those whose earlier education had 
been neglected were partially met b}'^ evening classes. After the 
first enthusiasm had expended itself, however, the system gradually 
languished until the educational revival which took place at the 
close of last century through the exertions of Lancaster and Bell, 
when it practically merged into that of the National Society. 

The work of Joseph Lancaster commenced in 1798, and resulted 
after ten years in the foundation of " The Royal Lancasterian In- 
stitution " — a body which in 1814 changed its name into that of 
*' The British and Foreign School Society." The " National 
Society " was founded in 1811 — partly, it would seem, as a protest 
against the undenominational character of the schools established 
by the Lancasterian Society — for promoting the education of children 
in the principles of the Church of England. Until 1833 these 
societies, in worthy rivahy, were between them instrumental almost 
exclusively in promoting, entirely unaided by the State, the supply 
of whatever provision was made for the elementary education of the 
children of this country. Differing mainly in the arrangements 
they made for religious instruction, the two societies agreed very 
largely in the principles vipon which they carried on their work. 
Both devoted themselves principally to the encouragement of local 
efforts for the establishment and maintenance of schools ; both con- 
ducted model schools in London, in connection with which they 
carried on a system of training for teachers ; both adopted the plan of 
instruction known as the " monitorial system," under Avliich the 
teacher was dependent almost entirely upon the elder scholars for 
whatever assistance was needed in carrying on the instruction ; 
both originally carried on their schools as free schools, and both 
gradually introduced the system of requiring small weekly payments 



THE ENGLISH SYSTEM, 27 

from the parents, as a means of obtaining additional income and 
as a security for regularity of attendance. The National Societ}^ 
though the younger of the two, was soon enabled by its superior 
wealth to far outstrip the rival society in the extent of its operations 
and in the number of its affiliated schools. 

The year 1833 is memoraVjle in the history of education in this 
country as that in which, for the first time, aid was afforded by the 
State to elementary education. The amount voted by Parhament 
was onl}' £20,000 ; but this modest sum mai'ked the commencement 
of a new era in which practical eff'ect has been increasingly given to 
the principle — enunciated for the first time pubhcly in this countrj' 
in 1816, inone of the reports of the Committee of the House of Com- 
mons, of which Mr. Brougham was Chamnan — that "the education 
of the people is a matter in which the State has a vital concern." 

The disbursement of this small gi-ant was confided to the Treasury, 
bj' whom, in obedience to the Act under which it was made, it was 
distributed solely "in aid of private subscriptions for the erection 
of schools for the education of children of the poorer classes in 
Great Britain." Under the terms of the Treasury Minute adopted 
on the 30th August, 1833, assistance was given only in cases where 
a report either from the National Society or the British and 
Foreign School Society satisfied the Treasmy that the application 
was one deserving of attention, and that there was a reasonable 
prospect of the school being permanently supported. In 1835, a 
special grant of £10,000 was made by Parliament towards the erec- 
tion of Normal and Model Schools, but the Treasury appears to 
have experienced so much difficulty in detennining how best to apply 
this sum that it remained in their hands still unappropriated in 
1839. 

In 1839, two further important steps were taken ; the grant, 
increased to ±'30,000, was no longer limited exclusively to the erec- 
tion of schools, but was made generally for the promotion of public 
education ; and a separate Committee of the Priv^' Council was 
appointed " to superintend the application of any sums voted by 
Parliament " for that purpose. This Committee met for the first 
time on the 1st June, 1839, when they adopted a report, confirmed 
by Order in Council two days later, by which they recommended 
that the £10,000 voted by Parliament in 1835 towards the establish- 
ment of Noi'mal Schools should be divided equally between the 
^National Society and the British and Foreign School Society, and 
that the annual Parliamentar}* grants should continue to be chiefly 
applied in aid of subscriptions for building schools connected with 
those societies. Power, however, was reseiwed to devote part of the 
fund to the supj^ort, in particular cases, of schools similarl}' con- 
nected ; to the aid, in excejitional cases, of other schools ; to the 
conduct of enquu'ies as to the state of education in England and 
AVales ; and to carrying out a system of Inspection of all schools 
aided by the State. It was further recommended that submission 
to such inspection should in future be made a condition of any aid 
gi-anted either towards the establishment or support of normal or 
other schools. 



28 STATE EDUCATION. 

Tins claim of a right of inspection, which appears to us not 
merely a natural corollary to the grant of pecuniary assistance, but 
almost an inherent duty on the part of the State, gave rise at the 
tnne to a great deal of difficulty on all sides, and particularly with 
the supporters of the British and Foreign School Society. With 
regard to schools in connection with the National Society or the 
Church of England, the difficulty was speedity solved by an arrange- 
ment that the Inspectors for such schools should be appointed, and 
contmue in office, only with the concurrence of the Archbishop of 
Canterbury or York, as the case might be ; that the instructions to 
such inspectors, with regard to religious teaching, should be framed 
by the Archbishops ; and that copies of the Inspectors' reports 
should be sent to them and to the Bishops of the respective dioceses. 
Similar arrangements were about the same time made in respect of 
schools connected with the Church of Scotland— the Committee of 
Council undertaking to consult the Education Committee of the 
C-eneral Assembly with respect to the selection of the inspectors of 
such schools. In reference to the British Schools, however, the 
controversy lasted for some years, being settled in the end by the 
Committee of Council making a similar concession in this as in the 
other cases, and agreeing that the Inspectors should not be appointed 
without the entire concurrence of the Society. Even this arrange- 
ment was not arrived at without entailing the secession of a con- 
siderable number of the Society's supporters, who formed themselves 
into a new organization for the promotion of schools which should 
be entirely free from support or control b}'" the Government. 

The next important step in the progress of our educational 
system was made in 1846, when what is known as the Pupil- 
Teacher system was introduced in place of the monitorial ; both 
the payment of the pupil-teachers themselves and the remunera- 
tion of the Head teachers for instructing them being directly 
undertaken by the State. Exhibitions of ^£20 or £25 were also 
provided to enable the more promising pupil-teachers, i on the 
completion of their apprenticeship, to enter a normal school ; 
and payments of ^£20 at the end of the first, £25 at the end of 
the second, and £30 at the end of the third year of instruction, 
were offered to the managers of such school for each student 
satisfactorily trained by them for three years. At the same time, 
as a further inducement for teachers to undergo a course of 
training, a special payment, varying from £15 to £30 a year in 
the case of a schoolmaster, and of two-thirds of those amounts in 
the case of a schoolmistress, was promised to each teacher who, 
after one, two, or three years' training, accepted appointment to a 
school under inspection. Power was also taken for the Committee 
of Council to grant a pension to any teacher who, after fifteen years' 
service, should be rendered incapable by age or infirmity of con- 
tinuing to teach a school efficientl3^ These regulations practically 
transformed the teachers into paid servants of the State. 

The rule limiting aid almost exclusively to schools connected 
with either the National or the British and Foreign School Society 
was repealed in 1847 ; and^ on the 28th June and 18th December 



THE ENGLISH SYSTEM. 29 

of that year respectively, minutes were passed admitting to the bene- 
fits of Government aid schools connected with either the Wesleyan 
Association, or the Roman Catholic Poor School Committee. 

In 1853, capitation grants were introduced tentatively, in agricul- 
tural districts and unincorporated towns of less than 5,000 inhabit- 
ants. The amount varied from 4s. to 6s. per head in the case of 
boys', and from 3s. to 5s. in the case of girls' schools, according to 
the relative smallness of the schools ; and the grant was subject to 
certain conditions as to income, attendance, and results — of which, 
l)robably, those most deserving of attention at the present time were 
the requirements that each scholar should pay a fee of not less than 
Id. per week, and that three-fourths at least of the children should 
l^ass certain prescribed examinations. The restriction of these 
grants to agricultural districts and small towns was removed in 
January, 1856, and from that time the Capitation Grant became a 
distinct feature, of universal application, in the Government's scheme 
of assistance to elementary schools. 

In 1856, a Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Educa- 
tion was appointed, who should be directly responsible to the House 
of Commons for the distribution of the sums voted by them for the 
promotion of education. 

The appointment, in 1858, of a Royal Commission (usualh^ known 
as the Duke of Newcastle's Commission) to enquire into the state of 
popular education in the country, marks the close of what may be 
called the period of tentative development in the relations of the 
State to education— a period which had lasted for just one quarter 
of a century, and during which the annual Parliamentary vote had 
grown in amount from i'20,000 to little less than i*700,000. 

The report of that Commission, presented early in 1861, contained 
many imj)ortant recommendations, to scarcely any of which has effect 
been given to the present day. They would, to some extent, have 
approximated our educational system to that which had then been 
recently introduced into the Province of Upper Canada, and upon 
which many educational reformers still look as a model for imitation. 
The report suggested the universal creation of County and Borough 
Boards of Education, to whom the duty of examining the schools in 
their respective districts should be delegated, and who should be 
required to supplement the Parliamentary grant by payments from 
the local rates. On the other hand, it recommended that the State 
should cease to make payments to individual teachers, dealing exclu- 
sively in future with the managers of schools, and that to secure 
the more uniform distribution of the teaching given in schools, each 
child should be individually examined, and " the prospects and posi- 
tion of the teacher" made "dependent, to a considerable extent, on the 
results of this examination." 

In the following year, Mr. Lowe, then Vice-President of the 
Committee of Council, introduced what is known as the " Revised 
Code " for regulating the future distribution of the Parliamentary 
grant — a document professedly based upon the recommendations of 
the Royal Commission, but which in fact did little more than adopt, 
in a crude and most objectionable form, the single recommendation 



30 STATE EDUCATION. 

of the Commissioners for "individual examination" and "payment 
by results." On the principle of "payment by results" much 
diiference of opinion still exists, but of the method by which it was 
sought to apply that principle in the " Revised Code " there is, 
among educationalists, practical unanimity of condemnation. 

The withdrawal from them, without any form of compensation, 
of the direct payments, and particularly of the prospects of super- 
annuation, previously guaranteed them, has always been denounced 
by the teachers affected, as a distinct breach of faith on the part of 
tiie Government — a breach of faith which has ever since led teachers 
to adopt an attitude of suspicion towards the central authorities. 

The principles introduced by the Revised Code, into the system 
upon which the Parliamentary Grant is distributed, remain in force 
to the present day, though the details of their application have been 
very much modified, and" its area greatly extended during the interval. 
It is, however, by no means improbable that before these hnes appear 
in print, proposals will have been made by the Government which, 
without absolutely abandoning those principles, will so far modify 
their application as to permit the restoration of the better features 
of the earher system, while excluding the evils by which they were 
then attended. 

The subsequent history of the subject is too recent, and too much 
within the memory of the general public, to need more than such a 
passing reference as will recall to mind its most prominent incidents. 
In 1870 was passed the first of the Education Acts. It had for its 
object to secure that there should be in " every school district a 
sufficient amount of accommodation in public elementary schools " 
for " all the children resident in such district" ; incidentally it pro- 
vided for the formation under certain circumstances of School 
Boards, and permitted such boards when formed to make school 
attendance compulsory in their respective districts. The Act passed 
in 1876 placed for the first time on the Statute book a declaration 
that it is " the duty of the parent of every child to cause such child 
to receive efficient elementary instruction in reading, writing, and 
arithmetic," and provided certain penalties for non-fulfilment of this 
(juty — creating, for districts not under School Boards, a new class of 
authorities, called School Attendance Committees, for its enforce- 
ment. Besides these two main enactments. Acts of minor import- 
ance were passed in 1873 and 1880. 

Within the last few years two important Royal Commissions have 
examined and reported on various aspects of the educational system, 
making numerous recommendations which still await the necessary 
steps being taken for carrying them into effect. The first was the 
Royal Commission on Technical Instruction appointed in 1881 ; the 
second, that nominated in January, 1886, to enquire into the working 
of the Education Acts. Whenever practical operation is given to the 
suggestions of these Commissions, elementary education in this 
country will enter on an entirely new era, and one fraught with 
momentous effects on the well being of the nation. 

The distinctive features which the course of its development, as 
traced in the foregoing sketch, has impressed upon our English 



THE ENGLISH SYSTEM. 31 

system of elementaiy education — those in which it differs from the 
corresponding S3^stems of ever}^ other country — may be said to be : — 

(1.) Its dual system of management, under which two-thirds of the 
jjrovision for elementary education is in the hands of private 
managers ; 

(2.) The arrangements by which a system that, so far as the 
State is concerned, is professedly an entirel}"" secular one, 
is in reality of a pronouncedly religious, and in the great 
majority of cases of a distinctly denominational character ; 

(3.) The fact that the supervision of the central authority is based, 
not upon any inherent right in the State to regulate the education 
of its future citizens, but upon the share which it bears in the 
cost of the education provided ; and 

(4.) The system by which the amount of the central authority's 
contribution towards the maintenance of a school is regu- 
lated — a system popular^ known b}^ the name of " payment 
by results." 

Other conspicuous features of the system, but in which it is not so 
markedly conti-asted with those of other nations are : — 

The methods adopted for the selection and training of teachers ; 

The contribution by the parents in the form of school fees ; and 

The arrangements for enforcing school attendance, and for dealing 
with the children of vicious or criminal parents. 

From the brief outline of the history of the system which has 
just been given it will be seen that, following the example of the two 
societies which acted as pioneers in the work, the Government of 
this country has throughout limited its action almost exclusively to 
fostering local effort. In the course pursued for this purpose it 
deliberated relied — so long as it could do so entirely — upon the 
zeal and enthusiasm of the various religious bodies ; and it Avas only 
when these proved unequal to the enormous task of providing and 
maintaining school accommodation for the whole of the child 
population of the kingdom that resort was had to any other form of 
local effort. The object and effect of the Government's action was 
very accurately described by Sir J. Kay- Shuttle worth (a former 
Secretary of the Education Department), in his " Memorandum on 
Public Education " drawn up in 1868. He says " The intention of 
the Minutes of 1846 was to give an impulse to the growth and 
improvement of the system founded by the religious communities ; " 
and he states that the steps adopted with that object " drew every 
religious communion, except the Congregational dissenters and 
bodies allied with them, into co-operation with the Government, 
and created a vast denominational system, which firmly established 
popular education on a religious basis." So far, at one time, was 
this reliance upon the religious denominations carried, that in 1853 
the Committee of Council refused an application for aid to a secular 
school on the ground " that educational grants had not hitherto 
been applicable to schools exclusively secular " — adding *' that they 
believed that such a decision was in accordance with the views of 
the great majority of the promoters of education; " "under these 



32 .STATE EDUCATION. 

circumstances," they concluded, " the,y had no intention of rescinding 
the rule on which they had hitherto acted." Although the rule here 
mentioned was at a later period somewhat relaxed, it was still true 
in 1870 that almost the whole of the schools in receipt of Govern- 
ment assistance were directly connected with one or other of the 
various religious denominations in the country, and, subject to 
inspection by the officers of the Department, were managed exclu- 
sively by private persons belonging to those denominations. 

The Act of 1870, though it brought into existence local bodies 
charged with the duty of supplying whatever deficiencies might be 
found to exist in the school accommodation of their respective 
districts, was instrumental in greatly increasing the number of 
schools under private and denominational management. On the 
one hand, while withdrawing for the future all parliamentary grants 
"in aid of building, enlarging, improving, or fitting up any elemen- 
tary school," it permitted such grants to be made in respect of any 
apphcation received before the close of the year in which it was 
passed ; and, on the other, it provided that, before any district 
should be called upon to provide Board School accommodation, a 
period not exceeding six months should be allowed for the deficiency 
in accommodation to be provided by voluntary means. No less 
than 3,111 applications for building grants were lodged within the 
prescribed period, in about half of which number the erection of the 
building was subsequently carried out with the aid of a grant. 
Since that time, 4,800 new or enlarged buildings have without 
Government assistance been added to the number of voluntary 
schools, in many, if not in most of which cases the direct object of 
the provision has been to prevent the necessity arising for the 
formation of a School Board. In 1870, the officers of the Depart- 
ment inspected 8,281 schools, all under private management, with 
accommodation for 1,878,584 children. In 1888, they visited 
14,659 schools of this kind, with accommodation for 3,547,073 
children. It is estimated by the Education Department that these 
additions from voluntary sources to the educational provision of the 
country have entailed upon their promoters an expenditure, on 
buildings alone, since 1870, of nearly £7,500,000. 

But in one respect a complete revolution in the action of the 
Department was brought about by the Act of 1870. While per- 
mission was continued to private managers to supply what religious 
teaching they pleased in the schools under their control, and 
option was given to the public bodies created under that Act to 
afford religious instruction of an undenominational character, the 
direct connection of the State with such instruction, whether 
denominational or undenominational in its character, was absolutely 
severed. H.M. inspectors were prohibited from examining the 
scholars in other than secular subjects, and no portion of the grant 
was to be given, either directly or indirectly, on account of any 
religious instruction given in the school; nor was the Depart- 
ment's recognition of a school to be in any way affected by its 
supplying or faihng to supply instruction in religious subjects. 

At the time when the Act of 1870 was passed, there were very few 



THE ENGLISH SYSTEM. 33 

of the larpje towns in wliich the educational zeal of the religious 
l)odies liad been able to keep pace with tlie rapid growth of the 
popubition ; while even in country places the number of parishes 
julequately supplied with school accommodation bore a comparatively 
small proportion to the whole number. Taking the kingdom as a 
whole, provision did not exist for the needs of much more than one- 
third of the entire population, and the system on which even this 
provision had been made, had the additional drawback that it left 
districts untouched precisely in proportion to their poverty or lack 
of enterprise. Inadequate and unsatisfactory though these results may 
appear, tbey were the outcome of sustained educational efforts during 
nearly three-quarters of a century, and of the voluntary expenditure 
of several millions of money — not to mention the ever-increasing 
contributions by the State during about half that period. It was 
clear, therefore, that if the accommodation was ever to overtake the 
educational needs of the country, and especially if education was to 
penetrate into the poorest and most backward districts, the system 
which had previously existed must at least be supplemented from 
some other quarter. The Act of 1870 accordingly introduced a 
machinery by which either at the request of the locality, or in the 
event of sufficient school provision not being supplied by other 
means to the satisfaction of the Education Department, a School 
Board might be called into existence in any district, whose duty it 
would be to supply the deficiency of accommodation at the cost of 
the local rates. The new Act was at once voluntarily adopted by 
all but one of the boroughs with a population of 50,000 or more, by 
a majority of the smaller boroughs, and by a considerable number 
of parishes. Before three years were expired nearly half the popula- 
tion in England and Wales had, mainly by this means, been brought 
under the influence of School Boards. The subsequent extension 
of the system has not been equally rapid nor so generally voluntary; 
but, at the present time, the districts under School Boards comprise 
nearly two-thirds of the total population of the kingdom. 

The share, however, of the school accommodation of the country 
which it has fallen to School Boards to provide has not been by any 
means equally large. The total number of schools which they have 
either erected or taken over is, according to the Litest returns of the 
Education Department, 4,562, with accommodation for 1,809,481 
children, and provided at a cost of some i>20,000,000. 

It will thus be seen that the provision for elementary education in 
this country is supplied by 19,221 schools, with a total accommoda- 
tion for 5,356,554 children — of which rather more than one third is 
supplied by Board, and the remainder by voluntary schools. The 
former are as a rule larger and more costly than the latter — their 
average size being for 897 children as compared with 242, the average 
of the voluntary schools. The difference in size, and partially in 
cost, is to be explained by the fact that a larger proportion of the 
Board than of the voluntary schools are to be found in the great 
centres of i)opulation. Of the voluntary schools, nearly five-sixths 
in number (11,825), with five-sevenths of the accommodation, are 
connected with the Church of England. The remaining 2,834 in- 

VOL. I. D 



34 STATE EDUCATION. 

elude 909 Roman Catholic and 553 Wesleyan Schools, while 1,372 
are British or undenominational. 

All these are what are called " public elementary schools " ; that 
is to say, schools which, whether or not primarily intended for 
children belonging to a particular religious body, are open to children 
of all denominations, and in which the religious opinions of the 
minority are safeguarded by a " Conscience Clause." Section 7 of 
the Act of 1870 provides that, for a school to be a Public Elementary 
School and qualified to participate in the Government grant, " it 
shall not be required as a condition of any child being admitted into 
or continuing in the schcol that he shall attend or abstain from 
attending any Sunday School or any place of public worship," and 
that "any scholar may be withdrawn by his parent from" any religious 
"observance or instruction " practised or given in the school "without 
forfeiting any of the other benefits of the school," — with several minor 
provisions having the same object in view. In a Board School, it 
is further provided, by section 14, that "no religious catechism or 
religious formulary which is distinctive of any particular denomination 
shall be taught ; " subject, however, to this restriction, it is left to the 
discretion of the School Board to give or withhold religious instruc- 
tion, and to regulate the amount and character of the instruction if 
given. In the arrangements which have been adopted by School 
Boards in the exercise of this discretion there is almost infinite 
variety — extending from the mere reading of a chapter of Scripture 
Avithout note or comment to the giving of systematic instruction in 
Scripture in accordance with a definite syllabus, which includes the 
learning of the Lord's Pra3"er, the Ten Commandments, and, in 
some cases, the Apostles' Creed. How far the Board Schools, as a 
whole, are from being justly open to the charge of giving a "God- 
less " education m^ay be gathered from the following extract from 
the Report of the late Royal Commission on Education (page 118), 
viz. : — " We find that out of 2,225 School Boards, representing the 
judgment of more than sixteen millions of our j)opulation, only seven 
in England and 50 in Wales, according to the Parliamentary Returns 
of 1879, 1884, and 1886, have dispensed entirely with Religious 
Teaching or Observances. Most of the School Boards of large 
towns, following the example of London, have adopted careful 
schemes for Religious Instruction. Of the large School Boards, 
one alone dispenses with reading the Bible, and one other alone 
dispenses with prayers and hymns, while those small Boards w^hich 
shut out direct religious teaching from their day schools are, in the 
most part, in Wales., where the Sunday-School system powerfully 
afiects the whole population." The charge, groundless though it 
is, is a somewhat double-edged weapon ; for it is an imputation not 
so much upon the School Board system as upon the religious 
character of the constituencies who elect, and whose opinions are 
represented by, the Boards, and therefore inferentially upon the 
religious teachers who are very largely responsible for the views of 
the community on religious matters. In this respect there can be 
little ultimate difference between voluntary and Board Schools ; since 
the security for the religious character of both alike rests, in the last 



THE ENGLISH SYSTEM. 35 

resort, on a common basis, viz. : the religious convictions of the 
nation. On this point the following remark of a clergyman, who is 
at once a prominent educationalist and a sincere friend of voluntary 
schools, is worthy of the most careful consideration by those wlio 
advocate a religious basis for elementary education. He says : 
" English parents will not readily be induced to permit the elimina- 
tion of religion from the curriculum taught to their children. If 
England should be securalized, nothing could then stop the seculari- 
zation of English schools. But the schools will not be secularized 
so long as the nation continues to be religious." 

\\\ all these schools. Board and voluntary alike, the actual 
management and the financial responsibility rests with the locality. 
The managers or the School Board appoint and pay the teachers, 
maintain the fabric, and supply the books, apparatus, and all other 
articles necessary for the efficiency of the school. The action of the 
Government is limited almost exclusively to ascertaining, by means 
of their staif of Inspectors, that the statutory regulations are com- 
plied with, and the conditions, as to efficiency, staff, sanitary arrange- 
ments, &c., required to qualify for a grant, duly fulfilled. Failure in 
these respects may be punished by the reduction, or withholding, 
of the grant, or in the case of a Board School may, if serious, be 
visited by a declaration that the Board is in " default," whereupon 
the Board may itself be superseded for the remainder of its three 
years' term b}' another appointed b}" the Education Department. 

Tlie aggregate cost of carrying on these schools amounted during 
the last year to £7,165,612, or slightly less than £2 for each child 
in average attendance — of which sum rather more than three-quarters 
was paid for the salaries of teachers. The cost in Board Schools 
amounted to £2 4s. l\dj. per child, and in voluntary to &\ 16s. 4fL 
— the former paying 6s. 5kZ. per child more for teachers than the 
latter. The ^^4,075, 430 of expenditure on voluntary schools was 
met (nearly) b.y a grant of £1,874,315 from the Government 
(equal to 17s. \\d. per head on the average attendance), £1,240,287 
from school fees, £162,180 income from endowments, and £745,340 
from voluntary contributions. The £3,090,182 expended on Board 
Schools was slightly more than covered b}^ income, derived as 
follows: — £1,195,070 from Government grants (equal to 18s. \\d. 
per head on the average attendance), £621,416 from school fees, 
£8,902 from endowments or voluntary contributions, and £1,231,787 
from the local rates. In the case of the latter schools, a further sum 
of £968,145 was paid during the year for the sinking fund on the 
cost of erection. 

The conditions which regulate the amount of the Government 
grant to individual schools, are contained in a document entitled 
the " New Code," which is laid annually before Parliament, with 
such alterations as may from time to time be considered desirable. 
Though considerable changes have been introduced in late years, 
these conditions are still based on the principle of " payment by 
results," introduced by Mr. Lowe in 1862. They necessarily differ 
somewhat in their application to Infants' Schools and schools 
for older scholars. To the former, the grants are all calculated on 

D 2 



36 STATE EDUCATION. 

the average attendance, and consist, (i.) of a fixed grant of 9s. per 
head; (ii.) of a "Merit" grant of 2s., 4s., or Qs. according as the 
Inspector reports the school to be "fair," "good," or "excellent" ; 
(iii.) of Is. if needlework be satisfactorily taught ; and (iv.) of Is. (or 
Qd.) if the children are taught to sing by note (or by ear) ; the 
maximum receivable by a purely Infants' School is, therefore, 17s. per 
head. The grants payable to schools for older scholars consist, (i.) 
of a fixed grant of 4s. &d. per head ; (ii.) of a merit grant of Is., 2s. 
or 3s. according as the school is rated "fair," "good," or 
"excellent"; (iii.) of Is. (or %d.) if the children are taught to sing by 
notes (or by ear) ; (iv.) of Id. for ever}^ unit of the percentage which 
the number of " passes " on an examination of each individual child 
in reading, writing and arithmetic, bears to the whole number of the 
children whose names have been on the rolls of the school for the 
twenty-two weeks immediately preceding the close of the month before 
that in which the examination is held ; (v.) of 2s. (or Is.) for each of 
two (if so many are taken) of the subjects, English, Geograph}', 
Elementary Science, History, and (for girls) Needlework, if the 
Inspector's report on the examination of the children by classes is 
good or fair ; (vi.) of Is. if the girls are satisfactorily taught needle- 
work, but not presented for the last-mentioned grant for that subject : 
— these six items are calculated upon the average attendance — and 
(vii.) of 4s. per head per subject for each of the elder girls who has 
received a prescribed amount of instruction in Practical Cookery, 
and for each child who passes in not more than two " specific " sub- 
jects, i.e., subjects other than those previously mentioned — provided 
that such child has also been presented for examination in one of the 
highest three grades (or standards) into which the elementary sub- 
jects are divided. The maximum grant obtainable under these rules 
for any boy is £1 8s. IQd., and for any girl £1 9s. l^d. — the average 
actually earned being about 18s. A further grant is made of ^62, or 
£,^, for each of a limited number of pupil- teachers who passes fairly, 
or well, in the annual examinations for such teachers held by H.M. 
Inspectors. The total amount of grant, which can be paid to any 
particular school, is subject to the further condition, that it shall not 
exceed 17s. &d. per head on the average attendance, except to the 
same extent that the income of the school from other sources also 
exceeds that amount ; this restriction is popularly known by the 
name of " the 17s. 6cZ. limit." 

Both the principle of " payment by results," and " the 17s. 6tZ. 
limit " have been the subjects of strenuous and prolonged controversy. 
With regard to the former it is contended that it is essential Parlia- 
ment should have sufiicient security that the purposes for which it 
votes the public mone}' are in fact attained, and that where so large 
a proportion of the schools aided are under the sole control of 
private and irresponsible persons, the only adequate guarantee 
possible is supplied by the seai-ching examinations of H.M. Inspec- 
tors. It is also urged that the abrogation of the system would lead 
to a revival of the evil, previously obtaining, of the elder and 
brighter scholars receiving an undue amount of attention, and of the 
younger and more backward being comparatively neglected. It is 



THE ENGLISH SYSTEM. 37 

likewise maintained b}^ some prominent educationalists that the 
system, in some form, affords the only security for the adequate 
remuneration of the more deserving teachers ; for if the ready means 
now afforded, of approximately estimating the relative ability of 
different teachers, were removed, the representatives of the ratepayers 
at least would have much difficulty in justifying the payment to one 
teacher of more than to another, with the inevitable result that 
salaries Avould tend more and more to sink to a dead level. In 
support of this view it is pointed out that already the salaries 
of teachers in England have risen to a level higher on the average 
than that obtaining in any other large countr}^, and that this rise 
shows no signs of ceasing. In 1851 it was calculated that the average 
salary of certificated masters — taking head and assistant teachers 
together — was only .£65 ; in 1868 it was £91 ; in 1877, £115 ; and in 
1888, £120 ; while between the last-mentioned dates the percentage 
of the total number receiving salaries of £200 a year or more, rose 
from 5'6 to 12*75, and the actual number receiving £300 a year or 
more, increased fivefold. In the State of New York, notwithstanding 
the relatively much higher cost of living, the average income of 
schoolmasters is given at 409*27 dollars or a fraction over £85 a 
year. 

On the other hand, the evils of the system are very widely and 
very strongl}^ urged. In the first place, when the Government pay so 
much per subject, it is necessary for them to place some limit upon 
the number of subjects taken, and this necessarily leads to the 
curriculum in the schools being unduly meagre ; it is difficult to say 
whether a knowledge of History or of Geography is the more im- 
portant to the future citizens and rulers of a world-wide empire, yet 
both cannot be taken — nor either, except to the exclusion of Elementary 
Science, than which perhaps no subject, except drawing, forms a 
more important part in the education of a great industrial people. 
Again the endeavour to bring up all children to the same level regard- 
less of the diversity in their natural abilities, leads to the over-pressure 
of the dull, and to the neglect, and consequent discouragement of 
the clever. A system, moreover, under which the exclusion of a few 
backward children would directly increase the teacher's emoluments, 
as well as diminish his trouble, offers an almost irresistible tempta- 
tion to the adoption of that course ; while nothing more directl}'^ 
tends to induce, one might almos't say to manufacture, truancy, 
than this discouragement, on the one hand, of the backward, and, 
on the other hand, of the brilliant children. The necessity 
of making each child ''pass" leads inevitably to "cram "being 
substituted for teaching ; with the result that a very large portion 
of the "knowledge" paid for b}'^ the State is forgotten almost 
immediately it has served the purpose of getting the child through 
the examination. After weighing carefully, as they say, all the 
evidence laid before them tending to show the evils which arise from 
the present method of payment by results, the late Royal Commission 
on Education expressed the conviction "that the distribution of the 
Parliamentary grant cannot be wholly freed from its present depen- 
dence on the results of examination without the risk of incurring 



38 STATE EDUCATION. 

graver evils than those which it is sought to cure." Nevertheless, the}"- 
added that they were " unanimously of opinion that the present 
system of ' payment by results ' is carried too far, and is too rigidly 
applied, and that it ought to be modified and relaxed in the interests 
equally of the scholars, of the teachers, and of education itself." It 
is more than probable that efiect will, to a large extent, be given to 
these opinions of the Commissioners in the forthcoming revised 
edition of the New Code. 

"The 17s. 6fL lim-it" was imposed for the purpose, which its 
supporters contend it has fulfilled, of inducing greater liberality on 
the part of voluntary subscribers, and it is urged that any relaxation 
of this rule would be immediately followed by a falling oft" in receipts 
from private sources. On the other hand, it has certainly had the 
effect of inducing managers, very often much against their will, to 
raise their fees to the utmost obtainable, and thus of increasing the 
burden which the education of their children entails upon the poor. 
The income derived by voluntary schools from this source was 
8s. l\cl. in 1868, and in 1888, lis. OfcL, an increase of 28*5 per cent. 
The principal objection, however, that is raised to the limitation is, 
that its effect is almost exclusively confined to schools, which, though 
situated in poor neighbourhoods, are carried on with thorough 
efficiency ; that its effect on such schools is in direct proportion to 
their efficiency ; and that it cripples the education of the poor by 
discouraging the managers and teachers undertaking subjects the 
grants for which would be earned only to be withheld under this 
provision. For its ostensible purpose, moreover, the limitation is 
not particularly successful ; for the school in which only low fees 
can be charged frequently suffers deduction under this clause, not- 
withstanding that the managers have raised considerable sums from 
voluntary sources, while a school with high fees will receive its grant 
in full, though the managers may contribute little or nothing to its 
maintenance. The Commissioners accordingly recommend that the 
limitation be repealed. 

Among the conditions upon which a school is permitted to receive 
a Government grant, one of the principal is that the head teacher 
shall hold a certificate from the Education Department, and that 
there shall be staff of teachers recognized by that Department, 
bearing a definite proportion to the attendance. The recognized 
teachers consist of three main divisions, Certificated, Assistant, and 
Pupil-Teachers. As the latter form the main source from which 
the other classes are recruited, it may be well to deal with them first. 
Pupil-teachers are young persons of not less than fourteen years of 
age, who, after passing an entrance examination, are apprenticed for 
a term of four, three, or two years, according to their age and attain- 
ments. During their apprenticeship they are to be employed in 
school work for not more than twenty-five hours per week, and in 
return for their services are entitled to receive, in addition to a small 
stipend, instruction for not less than five hours per week from a 
certificated teacher or teachers. At the end of each year of their 
term they are examined by H.M. Inspectors, whose adverse report 
may lead to a prolongation of their apprenticeship. On the satis- 



THE ENGLISH SYSTEM. 39 

factory completion of their term they are entitled to recognition as 
Assistant Teachers. As to the value of this sj'stem, which was 
originally adopted from Holland, there exists among educationalists 
much difference of opinion. On the one hand, it is contended that 
" the time occupied in teaching destroys the pupil-teacher's intellec- 
tual freshness and energy, so that both teaching and learning suffer," 
and that as a source for the supph' of the future teachers of the 
country "it is at once the cheapest and the worst possible." On 
the other hand, experienced Principals of Training Colleges 
speak most highh^ of the advantages of the system in preparing 
young persons to be teachers; for "the power which is acquired 
between the ages of fourteen and eighteen can scarcely ever be 
acquired to perfection afterwards," and they find that there is " the 
greatest difference between students who have been pupil-teachers 
and those who have not, in their ability to handle a class, in their 
power of discijiline, and in their capacity to deal with all the little 
difficulties of school work." The truth appears to lie in the com- 
bination of the two views ; the system is an admirable one for 
developing the power to teach, but, as at present usually carried out, 
scarcely affords the young teachers sufficient opportunities of self- 
culture. To remedy the latter evil is the special object of the 
" centre-system" of teaching which has recently been adopted, with 
most encouraging results, by several of the larger School Boards. 
Under that system the pupil-teachers are generally relieved, es- 
pecially during the earlier years of apprenticeship, of some of the 
teaching previously required ; and, instead of receiving their own 
instruction exclusively in their schools, are (in some places in addi- 
tion, in others in substitution) gathered together into classes for 
collective instruction. Imperfect, and capable of improvement, 
though the sj-^stem ma}' be, probably its strongest defence lies in the 
fact that it does furnish the country with an adequate supply of 
teachers, while it is more than probable that, under the special 
economic conditions of this country, any other S3'stem would fail to 
do so — at least in the case of male teachers. This latter considera- 
tion prevailed with the Commissioners, and led them to express the 
opinion that, " with modifications, tending to the improvement of 
their education, the apprenticeship of pupil teachers ought to be 
upheld." 

In the July of each 3'ear the Government hold an examination — 
attended chiefly by young persons who have just completed, or are 
in the last year of, an apprenticeship, but which is open to anj-" 
person who "will be more than 18 years of age on the 1st January 
next following the date of the examination " — on the results of which 
" Queen's Scholarships," entitling the holders to two years' residence 
and training at the expense of the Government in a Training 
College, are distributed to the number of some 700 for males and 
900 for females each year. Persons who pass this examination, 
but are for any reason unable to take up Queen's Scholarships, are 
recognized as Assistant Teachers, even though they may not have 
been pupil-teachers. 

For the training of the holders of Queen's Scholarships there are 



40 STATE EDUCATION. 

in all 43 colleges — 17 for masters onl}-, 25 for mistresses only, and 
1 for both masters and mistresses. Of these, 13 for masters and 
17 for mistresses are connected with the Church of England; 1 for 
masters and 2 for mistresses are Roman Catholic ; and 1 for masters 
and 1 for mistresses are Wesleyan ; while 2 for masters and 6 for 
mistresses are undenominational. All alike are exclusively residential 
at present ; but strong representations were laid before the Royal 
Commission as to the desirability of the establishment of Day 
Training Colleges, especially in connection with some of the 
numerous University Colleges which have been founded of late 
years in the large centres of population ; and it is not improbable 
that effect will shortly be given to these representations. The 
couse of training in the present colleges extends over two years, at 
the end of each of which the students are examined by H.M. 
Inspectors ; those who are successful in the 2nd year's examination 
receiving 2nd class certificates, and those successful in the 1st year's 
examination, 3rd class. The former, which alone entitle the holders 
to train pupil-teachers, are raised to the 1st class after ten j^ears 
successful service. These examinations, and the dependent certifi- 
cates, are also open to persons serving as assistant teachers in 
elementary schools, jarovided they are not less 21 years of age. 

For several years past some effort has been made to attract to the 
elementary schools, as teachers, persons who have had the benefit of 
university or other higher training ; but the requirement that they 
should serve for twelve months under a certificated teacher, and 
should afterwards obtain certificates themselves only by undergoing 
the usual examination, has hitherto practically deterred universit}^ 
graduates from offering themselves for the work. Tlie demand, 
however, which exists, and which is j'early increasing, for the 
services of teachers with higher attainments than those that the 
possession of a certificate necessarily implies, is inducing con- 
siderable numbers of certificated masters to qualify themselves for 
the degrees of universities, like London and Dublin, which do not 
insist upon residence. And there can be little doubt that, if 
sufficient encouragement is given b}'' the Department to local 
university colleges, the opportunities of higher culture afforded b}*^ 
these institutions, will be gladly embraced by a considerable number 
of those who are seeking to enter the ranks of elementary teachers. 

Except in country districts with a sparse population the English 
schools ai'e usuall}^ divided into three separate departments, for boys, 
girls, and infants respectively, each under its own head teacher. 
In some of the larger districts, however, where schools of more than 
ordinary size are possible, it is not uncommon for there to be a 
fourth department, intermediate between that for infants and those 
for older children, and confined to children in the lower standards. 
These are usually mixed schools ; as from considerations of 
economy are the majority of schools in rural districts. In some 
districts — especially in the north of England — schools of the Scotch 
type have been introduced. These are large institutions, containing 
sometimes 1,000 or more children, in which the sexes are mixed 
throughout, and in which the whole school is placed under one head. 



THE ENGLISH SYSTEM. 41 

It is claimed for these latter schools, that the unity of purpose running 
throughout them economizes the teaching power and renders it 
more efficient ; that the massing of the children in such large 
numbers permits of a finer graduation according to abilit}' ; and that 
the mixing of the sexes has moral advantages of much value, and 
facilitates considerably the maintenance of discipline. From these 
various circumstances mixed schools seem to be growing somewhat 
in favour, and now include in number fully 64 per cent, of the 
separate departments in public elementary schools for children above 
the age of infants. Twent}^ years ago the corresponding percentage 
was 55. 

Until the year 1871 attendance at schools was entirely voluntary, 
except in the case of children employed in Factories and Workshops, 
and of children committed to Industrial Schools and Reformatories 
or detained in Workhouse Schools. 

A series of enactments, commencing with the Factory Act of 183t5 
and terminating with the Factory and Workshop Act, 1870, had 
been passed for regulating, among other things, the employment of 
women and children in factories and workshops. These required as 
a condition of the employment of children under thirteen years of 
age in any of the regulated industries, that the children should 
attend school either half each da}^ or on alternate days. These 
enactments were extended by later legislation, and were finally 
consolidated by the Factor}' and Workshop Act of 1878, which 
now regulates the matter. 

Another series of statutes, commencing with the Ileformatory 
Schools Act of 1854 and consolidated by the Reformatory and In- 
dustrial Schools Acts of 18G6* — the i)rovisions of which, somewhat 
extended b}' subsequent legislation, are still in force — had jirovided 
for the commitment of children who had fallen into crime or were 
living under certain specified conditions likely to lead them to do 
so, to schools in which the}- would not onl}' be fed, clothed, and 
educated, but receive industrial training of such a nature as to 
prepare them to earn their own living honestly after the expiration 
of their term. 

By the Act of 1870, which did not come into practical operation 
until the following year, an optional joower was given to School 
Boards to make b^'e-laws requiring the attendance at school of 
children of ''not less than five nor more than thirteen years " of 
age. In 1876 this power was extended to a new set of authorities, 
called into existence under tlie name of School Attendance Com- 
mittees, for districts not under School Boards ; and at the same time 
a new method of procedure was provided, and applied to children uj) 
to fourteen years of age, for dealing with cases of habitual neglect, 
or with children in evil surroundings or not under proper control, 
and a system of indirect compulsion was introduced, b}' the jn'ohibition 
of the employment of children who had not attained a given standard 
of education, or, as an alternative, fulfilled certain requirements as 
to school attendance. By the Act of 1880, the making of bye-laws 
ceased to be an optional matter with School Boards or School 
Attendance Committees, who were universally required to adopt 



42 STATE EDUCATION. 

and enforce such regulations ; and at tlie same time indirect com- 
pulsion was made more stringent by abolishing the alternative 
qualification for employment by school attendance. The combined 
effect of the various enactments above referred to — Factory Acts, 
Reformatory and Industrial Schools Acts, and Elementary Educa- 
tion Acts — is a somewhat complicated system of direct and indirect 
compulsion, which maj^, however, with sufficient accuracy be sum- 
marized as follows : — 

1. The parent of any child between the ages of five and thirteen 

years who has not passed the Exemption Standard fixed by 
the local Bye-laws — generall}^ the fifth or sixth standard — may 
be fined a sum not exceeding (with costs) 5s. if the child does 
not attend school regularly ; as may also, under similar cir- 
cumstances, the parent of a child between thirteen and four- 
teen years of age who has not passed the Fourth Standard. 

2. A child under fourteen whose education is habitually neglected 

— generally the child of drunken or dissolute parents — may 
be committed to a Day Industrial School. 

3. A child under fourteen who is beyond the control of his 

parents may be sent to a Truants' School. 

4. The child under fourteen of criminal or grossly immoral 

parents maj^ be committed to a Certified Industrial School — 
as may also a child of the like age who is a vagrant or the 
companion of criminals, or a child under twelve who has 
fallen into crime. 

5. A child over twelve who has committed actual crime may be 

sent to a Reformatory. 
G. The employer (and the parent) of any child under thirteen 
years of age (or under fourteen, unless he has passed a pre- 
scribed standard) in any] regulated industry may be fined 
an amount, not exceeding from £2 to ii5, according to the 
particular circumstances (or in the case of the parent, not 
exceeding ,£1), if the child does not attend school half time. 
7. The employer in any other manner of a child who has not 
passed the Exemption Standard corresponding to his age may 
be fined an}" amount up to £2. 
Daj^ Industrial and Truants' Schools are institutions called into 
existence by the Act of 1876. The former are, as then' name 
implies, day schools ; and the children committed to them are fed as 
well as taught, and are to some extent trained in industrial work. 
Failure to attend is punishable by commitment to a Certified Indus- 
trial School, and the parent or any other person who may prevent 
the child attending is liable to any penalty not exceeding i;5. The 
cost of carrying on a school of this kind is ordinarilj^^ about 3s. a 
head per week, of which sum Is. is defrayed by a grant from the 
Treasur}^, and the remaining 2s. is nominall}^ assessed upon the 
parents, but under existing arrangements can be collected only to 
a very limited extent. The term of commitment is usually for three 
years, but children may at any time after one mouth be licensed on 
condition of regular attendance at an ordinar}^ school. Day Indus- 
trial Schools are under the inspection of the Home Ofiice. 



THE ENGLISH SYSTEM. 43 

The Truants' School is a modified form of Certified Industrial 
School, in which children are detained under rigid discipline, but 
usualh^ for very short terms. They are also subsidized by the Trea- 
sury, and inspected by the Home Office. The term of commitment is 
usually until fourteen or sixteen years of age, but licences conditional 
upon attendance at an ordinary school, and revocable at any time 
in case of non-compliance, are general!}' granted after the expira- 
tion of about six weeks or two months of the term. 

The whole of the existing arrangements, however, with regard to 
IJeformatory, Industrial, Truants' and Day Industrial Schools will 
probably before long undergo entire revision, in accordance with the 
recommendations of a Hoyal Commission, which enquired into the 
subject some few years since. Bills for this jiurpose have been 
introduced into Parliament for the last two or three sessions by the 
(jovernment, but have failed to pass owing to the pressure of other 
business. 

The foregoing sketch of the history and present condition of the 
English S3'Stem of elementar}" education is necessarily very incom- 
plete ; some important matters, such, for instance, as the methods of 
instruction pursued, are altogether omitted, while others are passed 
over with but brief allusion. It is hoped, however, that the sketch, 
imperfect though it is, may serve its purpose in removing some of 
the misapprehensions on the subject which are widely prevalent. 

The system itself is at the present moment in a transitional 
condition, and will probably within the next few years be largely 
transformed. The abolition of school fees — already to a great 
extent effected in Scotland — which in principle appears to have 
received the acceptance of both of our great political parties, cannot 
fail, if carried out, to profoundly modify existing arrangements. 
The demand for technical instruction, though not directly affecting 
elementary schools to any great extent, may indirectly produce mate- 
rial changes in their constitution, and especially in their ordinary cur- 
riculum. The hitherto almost exclusively literary character of their 
instruction will probably, in face of this demand, give place to train- 
ing of a more practical nature, and the bias given by the education 
be rather towards the higher forms of manual work than to the 
career of a clerk. The growing perception that a child's education 
cannot, in any rank of life, be considered complete when he is thirteen 
or fourteen years of age, and that, if not kept up, a vast amount of 
the knowledge upon which the nation is expending so lavishly its 
time and money, is entirely forgotten, is bringing to the front the 
question of providing evening continuation schools. Already the 
attention of Parliament has on several occasions been drawn to this 
subject, though as yet without effect ; and there can be little doubt 
that even without legislative assistance, the action of the Education 
Department, and the initiative of local bodies, will be sufficient to 
carry largely into effect the important and unanimous recommenda- 
tions on this subject of the recent Royal Commission. 

Edward M. Hance. 



PART III. 

STATE EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. 

In England, a national s^'steni of Education is, comparatively 
speaking, a thing of 3'esterday. Until the Act of 1870 was passed 
by Mr. Forster, there was nothing but a casual provision for any 
educational suppl}'^ throughout the country. In some districts, 
indeed, the liberality of the "pious founder" had established the 
means of education : but the extent to which these means were 
used, and the degree of efficiency in which they w^ere maintained, 
was left to the accident of local energ3\ And for the rest, the 
education of the people Avas left altogether to the voluntary efforts of 
public-spirited men, aided by the charity of those who chose to 
contribute to their work. Not until 1870 was there any guarantee 
that the work of charity should, if need be, be supplemented by 
statutory means. Not until the Acts of 1876 and 1880 were passed, 
was there a statutor}^ authority in every parish, armed with the 
]30wer of enforcing compulsory attendance at school. And even 
the Acts which found a place upon the Statute Book between 1870 
and 1880, related only to Elementary Education. The State has 
as yet assumed no responsibility in the sphere of Secondary Educa- 
tion, so essential to place the coping-stone upon any complete 
system. Encouragement has, indeed, been given by the grants 
from the Science and Art Department, towards one very important 
branch of such Education : but the State encourages only — it does 
not initiate or organize. Secondary Education is still mainly depen- 
dent upon endowments. These Endowments have, it is true, been re- 
arranged, and in large measure adapted to modern needs, by means 
of the Endowed Schools Acts. But such re-arrangement has pro- 
ceeded upon no verj^ certain or definite plan : and, as a consequence, 
jealousies have been engendered, bitter political feeling has been 
aroused, and serious checks have been placed in the way of the 
workj from the fact of the nation having no very certain or clear 
idea as to the relation of the Secondary to the Elementary Schools, 
as to the real interest which the poorer classes have in higher 
education, and as to the functions which higher schools have to 
fulfil in any national system worth of the name. As it is, the 
re-organization of these schools has not proceeded far enough. 
The schemes which have been passed provide for no inspection of 
the schools, and leave them exposed to the danger of inefficiency 
and gradual deca)^ to which so many amongst them have alread}^, 
in so many instances, succumbed. 



THE SCOTCH SYSTEM. 45 

But in Scotland the work of National Education has a far longer 
liistor}', and has been far more drastic in its operation. The 
national instinct was the first prompter in the movement. For a 
nation, fairly populous in proportion to its territory-, with few 
resources of internal wealth to enable it to compete with its richer 
neighbours ; but at the same time, energetic, ambitious, and full of 
expedient, Education offered the surest leverage by which to force 
its way to the front. It is to the credit of her leaders, for centuries 
past, that they recognized this need, and endeavoured to provide 
for it. The earliest schools were naturally those connected with 
the religious houses. But even before the lleformation, other 
educational provision had sprung up to share the field with these. 
The leading towns had their Grammar or Latin Schools, with 
elementary schools below them. As early as the days of James IV., 
before the close of the 15th century, there was a statute requiring 
all freeholders of substance to send their heirs to school, and to 
keep them there until they had " perfect Latin " — Latin being then 
the common language of all civilised Europe, and the only means 
by which young Scotchmen could successfully push their way to 
high employment abroad. After the lleformation, the Educational 
movement acquired a new impetus. The Reformed Church in 15G0 
prescribed a plan, which had almost as much force as statutory 
authority, according to which every town " of reputation " was to 
have a " Latin School" ; while the " upland " or country parishes 
were to have, each, a teacher of the first rudiments. Nor were the 
upper and lower ends of the ladder neglected. In the chief towns 
there were to be colleges for " logic, rhetoric, and the tongues " : 
while assistance was to be given to the poor to send their children to 
school. 

The " Book of Policy " in which the Church laid down this 
scheme, had an authority, as we have said, little less than statutor3^ 
But the disturbed state of the country, and the narrowness of 
available resources, often led to the scheme being more honoured in 
the breach than in the observance. No assessment was as yet 
imposed for the purposes of education ; nor was such an assess- 
ment established until the Privy Council in 1G16 laid a tax upon 
the land, to provide a school in each Parish. The decree did 
not receive statutory authority until 1633, when Episcopacy was 
dominant under the influence of Laud : but the power of assessing, 
which was placed mainly in the hands of the Bishop, was probably 
but little exercised in practice during the stormy interval which 
followed. Finally in 1696, after the Revolution, a period of educa- 
tional activity set in, reaching from the Universities, which were made 
the subject of a thorough and searching examination by a Com- 
mission, down to the Parish Schools, which were at last given a 
secure and permanent existence. The settlement of these schools 
did not come one moment too soon for the urgent necessities of the 
nation. Had Scotland, distui'bed and torn by nearly two centuries 
of unceasing religious and political struggle, during which the early 
promise of her literature had been well-nigh crushed out of life, 
begun the critical epoch of the eighteenth century without an 



46 STATE EDUCATION. 

organized s.ystem of national education, she would have been ill- 
fitted to take her place in that partnership for which the Union 
paved the way, and still more ill-fitted to reap the rich harvest of 
prosperity which the development of commerce yielded, and which 
only the vigour, enterprise, and sound equipment of her sons enabled 
her so richly to share. As it was, the Parish School soon became 
the most characteristic trait of Scottish life : a nursery of sound 
though simple training, in which all classes of the Scottish people 
found new encouragement to a common sympathy, that mingling of 
class with class which is an absolute necessity in a poor but courageous 
nation, and which became so typical of the "kindly" Scot. 

The Act of 1696 imposed upon the heritors, or landowners, of 
each parish the duty, at their own cost, of providing a school-house, 
and of paying a salary to the teacher. It provided, what previous 
Acts had failed to provide, a means of preventing indifference or 
neglect: because the Presbytery of the bounds was empowered, 
in case of failure on the part of the heritors, to erect the school, and 
maintain the teacher, at the cost of the defaulting heritors. _ It is 
not too much to say that this Statute opened a new era in the 
lowlands of Scotland, and first pointed out the road by which those 
sons of Scotland who had previously sought service in the armies of 
any contending powers in Europe, began to spread their influence 
over the civilized world by the peaceful methods of enterprise and 
commerce. It was long, of course, before the influence of the Act 
could extend to the remote valleys and mountains of the Highlands : 
but it spread as the rule of law prevailed, and insufficient as the 
provision often was, it still formed the charter of Scottish education, 
by which each Scottish boy could claim as a right the education 
fitted to give him a start in the world. 

The maintenance of the teacher was, naturally, in so poor a 
country, calculated upon a scale incredibly small, even allowing for 
the great difference in the value of money. It was not until 1803, 
that the salary was fixed at a sum varying from iJ15 to £20 a year, 
with a house and garden. But small as were his resources, the 
teacher was a freeholder, who, once appointed, could not be dis- 
missed, excei^t by a process strictly laid down by statute. He was 
poor, but he was also independent: and the advantages of his 
position were enhanced by the fact that he could count the highest 
as well as the humblest in the parish amongst his pupils, and was 
generally able to send, yearly, a quota of scholars to the University 
who might, in future years, reflect some glory upon their former 
Dominie. 

As time went on, however, the destitution of the Highland districts 
became more appalling. There the Act was practically a dead letter. 
Through wide regions in Invernesshire and Argyllshire, where 
parishes stretched for thirty or forty miles, there was no school 
within the reach of some 95 out of every 100 children. In 1824, 
the attention of the Church was especially directed to this, partly by 
the Commission of Inquiry set on foot by Lord Brougham. _ The 
Church made vigorous efforts to grapple with the evil ; but it was 
obhged to admit that charitable and voluntary effort was overpowered ; 



THE SCOTCH SYSTEM. 47 

that the existinsf statutes were insufficient to overtake the needs of 
these vast stretching parishes ; and that Lirger resources must be 
provided if the evil was to be met and overcome. The hist statute, 
dealing with the old Parish Schools, was passed in 1861. It con- 
siderably curtailed the old privileges of the Church ; restricted the 
formularies to which the adhesion of the teacher was required ; and 
substituted the Universities for the Presbyteries in the examination 
of teachers. The salaries of the teachers were at the same time 
increased ; and on the whole, while wide gaps in the national 
system still remained, the Parisli Schools had been strengthened, 
enriched, and liberalized before the Commission of Inquiry of 1864, 
■which was the prelude to the Education Act of 1872. Not only 
was there a strict conscience clause, but that conscience clause was 
oi:)erative in practice. Roman Catholics as well as Presbyterians 
were educated at the Parish Schools ; and in 1829 the General 
Assembly of the Church had expressly enjoined that no instruction 
should be pressed on the children of Iloman Catholics to which 
their parents or the priest objected. We have seen how, so long 
ago as the 15th centmy, provision was to be made for assisting tbe 
poor in obtaining education. In practice this still prevailed. Fees 
were charged as a rule ; but their amount varied by usage according 
to the means of the parent ; and in the case of the poor they were 
not exacted at all. 

Already, as in England, so in Scotland, the State had stepped in, 
as a source of assistance and encouragement. In England that 
assistance — first granted towards buildings in 1832, developing in 
1839 into a system of inspection, and in 1846 into grants for main- 
tenance according to certain defined principles — Avas an encourage- 
ment ofi'ered to purely voluntary effort, unprescribed by the Statute 
Book. In Scotland — while it followed, as to dates and objects, 
exactly the same course — we must not forget that it was merely a 
contribution from the national exchequer towards schools which, in 
by far the greater number of cases, were the direct creation of 
statute law. It is thus necessar}^ to remember that the financial 
assistance granted by Parliament rested upon a very different prin- 
ciple in England and in Scotland. But in both countries, the 
Committee of Priv}'^ Council, or the Education Department, as it 
soon afterwards was called, exercised exactly the same control and 
authorit}'. It merely laid down the conditions of grant, and by 
means of its Inspectors ascertained that these conditions were 
fulfilled. It did not belong to the Department to enforce tbe 
Statutes to which the Scottish Parish Schools owed their existence, 
any more than it fell to it to compel the establishment of National 
Schools by voluntary effort in England. 

AVe have thus brought down the history of the Scottish Parish 
Scliools to the eve of recent legislation. But this does not exhaust 
the whole sphere of the national system. We have seen how early 
efibrts had been made to establish Secondary or Grammar Schools. 
These had gradually taken shape ; and not the least important part 
of the Scottish Educational provision was that afforded by tlie 
Burgh Schools. These Burgh Schools were part and parcel of the 



48 STATE EDUCATION. 

national system, and were by no means dependent npon cliarit}^ 
ox endowments. They derived a certain income from the Common 
Good, or ]niblic funds of the Bnrgh, and their maintenance 
was a duty laid upon the Town Council. In principle this was 
tantamount to their being rate-supported Schools ; and althouoh 
the available funds were often scanty, tlie part they played in the 
education of the country was no insignificant one. In a country 
so poor as Scotland it was impossible that lavish endowments should 
be spent upon grammar schools, or that a long period in the lives of 
Scottish youth," who had their way to push in the world, should be 
consumed in higher education. But within their own sphere these 
schools were vigorously and energetically conducted. Their fees 
were reduced by prudent management to the narrowest possible 
limits. Their staff, though scantily paid, consisted of the picked 
men of an active and an independent profession. The widespread 
interest in education, and the management of a public body, were 
guarantees against their sinking into the state of inefficiency so 
common in Enghsh Grammar Schools. The constant stream of 
pupils passing from the Burgh Schools to the Universities, served to 
keep up a high ideal of scholarship. As a consequence, when the 
Assistant Commissioners appointed by the Schools Inquiry Com- 
mission of 1S61, accustomed to the slipshod methods and listless 
inefficiency of the English Grammar Schools, visited Scotland, they 
were struck by the healthy vigour which pervaded in the Burgh 
Schools, and saw in them a type which they would gladly have seen 
more widely spread amongst the richly-endowed Grammar Schools 
of England, managed by close bodies of trustees, and invigorated by 
no general educational interest such as prevailed amongst the middle 
class of Scotland. 

These various parts of the national system provided in Scotland 
that " ladder " which it has been the ambition of educational re- 
formers to repeat all over the kingdom. In the Parish Schools 
all classes mixed together. This bridged over many a social gulf: 
and in their picked scholars, who were beyond the reach of the 
Burgh Schools in the lai-ger towns, the Parish Schools kept in 
touch with the Universities and with higher education. In the 
towns, again, all parents who had any ambition for their sons, 
found at their hands the Burgh Schools, sustained by some contribu- 
tion from public funds, and providing, at moderate cost, an education 
fully adequate to the preparation of students for the Universities. 

What, then, were the faults which the Commis^ion of Inquiry 
of 1864 proved to exist in the Scottish national system ? In the 
first place, the Parish Schools, however good in themselves, were 
imequal to overtake the task imposed upon them by an increasing 
population. In the Highhmds they left wide tracts of country un- 
provided, and in the towns, a single Parish School was quite insuffi- 
cient to meet the requirements of crowded areas. Voluntary effort 
doubtless did much ; but not only was it casual in its operation, 
it was also incapable of rapid and certain deveh^pment. The Burgh 
Schools found themselves more and more crippled by want of funds, 
which leit the salaries of the stuff insufficient to attract to the pro- 



THE SCOTCH SYSTEM. 49 

fession men of vigour and capacity. The weakness of tlie Bui'gli 
Schools, again, told upon the Universities, which, in the absence of 
any complete system of secondary education were forced to take 
upon themselves the education of the tyro, and to receive pupils at 
an age when tliey would have worked to more purpose under the 
strict supervision of a schoolmaster than in the more independent 
sphere of a professor's lecture-room. The very excellence of the 
Scottish teachers often led them, inevitably, into a habit of attend- 
ing most to the picked company of higher scholars, and neglecting 
the rank and file of their pupils from whom they could not hope to 
acquire credit in the higher walks of life. 

The conviction of these defects gi-adually gained ground, and 
prompted the desire to complete, upon an adequate and worthy scale, 
the national system of which the foundations were so satisfactorily 
laid. Several attempts at legislation were made before success was 
attained. But there was one element which made success more 
easy in Scotland than in England. In Scotland the denominational 
difficulty presented itself mainly as one of management and not of 
system. The rivalry between the sects had led to the establishment of 
Schools which were necessary to maintain their infiuence, but which 
gave an education which even in its religious features was practically 
identical. Such rivahy was certain to continue so long as the 
Established branch of the Presbyterian Church retained its 
supremacy in the Parish Schools ; and therefore, however liberal 
and successful its government had been, it was inevitable that such 
supremacy should cease, seeing that there was something very nearlj- 
approaching unanimity amongst Scottish parents as to religious 
teaching, and the distinction between Schools was maintained only 
as a badge of sectarianism. 

It was in 1872 that Lord Young, then Lord Advocate, succeeded 
in placing upon the Statute Book the Scotch Education Act, which 
revolutionised the system. In many of its features that Act pre- 
sented a striking contrast to the English Education Act which had 
jireceded it. It was not merely an Elementary Education Act : but was 
intended to provide education " for the whole people of Scotland." 
Its object was not merely to establish local authorities in places 
where further provision was required : it established, on the con- 
trary, a School Board in every parish, and placed that Board at 
once in the management of the Parish Schools, and, in the towns, of 
the Burgh Schools. In the Enghsh Act, building grants were 
allowed to voluntary managers in order to enable them to supply 
deficiencies, and thus ward olf the intrusion of statutory authorities. 
In the Scottish Act, such building grants to voluntary managers 
were to cease, and instead, School Boards were allowed assistance 
ivom. the exchequer in providing Schools to supply the deficiencies 
which they found. In the English Act, Voluntary Schools were 
allowed full liberty of religious teaching, subject to the Conscience 
C'lause, but School Boai'ds were allowed to teach religion only under 
strict limitations as to formulae and creeds. In the Scottish Act, 
a conscience clause was the only restriction upon equal liberty for 
all ; and each locality was left to regulate the religious instruction 

VOL. I. B 



50 STATE EDUCATION. 

of its schools, through its own elected representatives. Although 
no grant was offered to the higher schools, yet these being placed 
under the management of the School Boards, were continued as 
part of the national sj^stem, and by subsequent statutes were given 
increased assistance from the rates. Lastly, comp^^lsion was intro- 
duced into England only by a gradual process : in Scotland the duty 
of giving education to his children was im^posed as a necessary duty 
upon every parent by the Education Act of 1872, and an authority 
was at once brought into existence in every parish for enforcing 
these compulsory clauses of the Act. A certain uniform standard 
of exemption from school attendance was imposed by one stroke 
over the whole of Scotland. Changes of detail had subsequently to 
be introduced, and the meshes of the net had to be made smaller : 
but since 1872 it has never been possible to find in Scotland what is 
still to be found in England, a variation in the standard of exemption 
as fixed by the bye-laws of two neighbouring parishes. 

Upon this solid legislative foundation, the new relations between 
the Education Department — now, so far as Scotland was concerned, 
a Scotch Education Department — and the School Boards or other 
managers of Schools, were based. We have now to see what these 
relations were, and what are the lines which have been followed 
by the Central and Local authorities in the development of the 
national system. 

In the first place, with regard to the Imperial grant. The effect 
of the Act of 1872 was to increase enormously the cost of the 
system : and the Imperial Exchequer had to take its share of this 
increase. But more strict conditions of efficiency had to be attached 
to the larger grant. Local authorities now existed to whom, and 
not to the teachers, the Department had to look as responsible for 
the efficiency of schools. With these authorities it rested to make 
such terms as they pleased with their teachers, and, if they thought 
it well, to bear casual fluctuations in the grant; but it was necessary 
to satisfy Parliament that the money it granted was not ill-spent ; 
and at the outset it was therefore considered necessary to impose 
the strict system of payment by results, which had been introduced 
by Mr. Lowe's Eevised Code of 1862. The Scotch Code, indeed, 
from the first, recognised something beyond the elementary sub- 
jects, and admitted higher education in the ordinary schools as 
something deserving of a grant. But a severe test had to be im- 
posed in order to check that tendency to neglect the backward 
scholars, which the previous system, with all its undoubted advan- 
tages, certainly was apt to encourage. For fourteen years that system 
was continued practically without a change. Only in 1886 was it 
deemed safe to relax the severity, or rather the minuteness, of the 
test: and in that year, a class examination, with a uniform payinent 
on graduated scales, was substituted for individual examination in 
the two lower standards. The experiment has been so far success- 
ful that the Department has now, in its Code for 1890, just issued, 
extended that system to the whole school. Individual examination, 
it is stated, may still be resorted to, as a check upon doubtful 
efficiency ; but otherwise individual examination is no necessary part 



THE SCOTCH SYSTEM. 51 

of the Scottish system, and it will not determine the amount of the 
Parliamentary subsid}'. A similar change was attempted last year 
for England ; but the question was surrounded by too many stormy 
subjects of debate, in the relations of the Board and the Voluntary 
Schools, and the attempted change Avas necessarily postponed. In 
Scotland, that freedom of organization which has been so long 
demanded is now conceded, and the rigour of a minute system 
which, it was asserted, tended to check the best efforts of school 
and teacher, has been abandoned ; and it now rests with the local 
authorities to show that their own zeal for education is sufficient to 
dispel all danger of inefficiency as the result of the relaxation. 
During the seventeen years which have elapsed since the Act was 
passed, the Parliamentary grant has increased from £140,000 to 
about £600,000 a year ; so that the responsibility thus imposed, 
first upon the local authorities, and finally upon the Central 
Department, is no light or nominal one. 

During the same period, the contribution from rates has gi-own 
until it reaches £247,000 a year, besides the annual obligations 
which are incurred in loans for the erection of schools. Besides 
this contribution from the rates to Elementary Schools, there is an 
annual contribution to the Burgh Schools (in addition to the Endow- 
ments derived from the Common Good) of £9,196. This contribu- 
tion is not met, like the rest of the income derived from rates, by a 
grant from the Department, because the principle of grants to 
Higher Schools has not yet been recognised. But if the Depart- 
ment does not allow grants to Higher Schools, it gives, at least, a 
guarantee, by inspection, of their efficiency. The Education Act of 
1878, which gave School Boards enlarged powers of aiding the 
Burgh Schools, also provided for the inspection of Higher Schools 
by the Department : and this function was largely extended, in 
1882, by the Educational Endowments Act, which required that 
each scheme should provide for the periodical inspection of Endowed 
Schools by the Department. The organization of this sj^stem of 
inspection, long a crying want in Scotland, was only completed after 
the lapse of some years : and it was not until 1886 that the Depart- 
ment was enabled to enter thoroughly u]Don the work. In that 
year, however, the system was put in operation. There are now 
three classes of Higher Schools which are inspected by the Depari- 
ment ; the Burgh Schools, towards the cost of which a contribution 
is made by the Treasury; the Endowed Schools, which are required 
by their schemes to defray the cost from their endowments ; and 
Private Schools, which, if they apply for inspection, must meet the 
cost themselves. The system has been completed b}'' the institu- 
tion of a Leaving Certificate Examination which stamps the standard 
attained by scholars leaving these Higher Schools, and which is 
accepted in lieu of various professional examinations, and b^'^ the 
Universities, both of England and Scotland, as exempting from 
certain preliminary tests. The system has not yet had full time to 
show its fruits ; but the statement issued by the Department shows 
that while 972 candidates presented themselves at the first examina- 
tion, the number at the second examination (in 1889) was 2,066. 

E 2 



52 STATE EDUCATION. 

The result so far as the Higher Schools are concerned has been to 
check their threatened extinction, and to enable them to hold their 
own in the hope that, some day, a subsidy from the State may 
enable them to compete on a more secure basis with their better 
endowed elementary rivals. No result could be more untoward for 
Scotland than the extinction of her Higher Schools, and the in- 
sufficient equipment which her sons would then have for the struggle 
for existence, which is ever growing in intensity and for which 
every surrounding nation is preparing with ever-increasing ardour. 

In connection with this, it is necessary briefly to refer to two 
closely related subjects, which are of great importance for the future 
of higher education in Scotland. The first of these is the re- 
organization of her endowments under the Educational Endowments 
Act of 1882. The Commission charged with that work has now 
come to a conclusion, after seven years of very arduous work. 
Their course has not always been a smooth one, and thej" have met 
at times with a keen, and sometimes a virulent, opposition. The 
suspicion has been aroused that endowments left for the poor are 
being diverted to the well-to-do ; and such a suspicion, once 
aroused, is naturally not soon lulled to sleep. It has been kept on 
the alert by the dislike of avowed reactionaries to change of an}^ 
sort, and bj^ what is little more than a sentimental regard for those 
older Hospitals, or institutions, in which the beneficiaries were boarded 
as well as educated, which have been repeatedly condemned by the 
verdict of successive Commissions of Inquir}^ It is inevitable that 
the disturbance of charitable funds, however great the evils which 
these funds have brought in their train, must sometimes involve 
hardship, and always provoke a certain amount of opposition. But 
we say unhesitatingly that the opposition has been for the most part 
undiscriminating and unwise. No Commission could have carried 
out its work with a more anxious wish to deal lenientlj^ with existing 
interests, and above all to preserve the advantages secured to the 
poor. But they were bound to deal firmly. Until not only 
political economy, but the hard facts on which political economy 
is founded, are banished to Saturn, the evils of indiscriminate 
doles will inevitably appear. To give by charitable endowment 
advantages which are secured to the people by statute, as a right, 
is not to benefit the poor, but to benefit those upon whom the 
statute has placed a burden which the endowment, so administered, 
enables them to avoid. To have preserved the Hospitals would 
have been to perpetuate a system alien to Scottish habit, and con- 
demned by all who studied their efi'ect, as stunting and weakening 
the faculties of their pupils. And, lastly, to assume that all help 
to higher education is help withdrawn from the poor, is to be false 
to all the best traditions of Scotland, to all that intellectual ambition 
which has been the chief characteristic of her sons, and to discourage 
that mingling of class with class which has been the best sign of her 
schools. But to give the opportunity of prolonging his education 
unduly to a boy selected only on the ground of poverty and not 
on that of merit, is to inflict upon that boy the irreparable 
hardship of wasting some precious years of his life in work for 



THE SCOTCH SYSTEM. S3 

which he is unfitted. By all means take every security that 
the poorest shall have his merits recognized, and that no one 
shall lose an opportunity by which he might in any way profit, 
or miss the chance of developing any faculty he possesses. But 
discriminate in your selection, or you will inevitably take from 
the boy the healthy stimulus of exertion, and will earn for yourself 
later the well-deserved blame of having hindered, instead of helped 
him, in his start in life. Stone by stone the edifice of elementary 
education has been raised, and step by step the roads towards its 
portals have been smoothed, until at last even the small toll 
previously levied at its entrance by way of fees, has been removed. 
It is now for the nation to build up that separate, but sister, edifice 
of higher education. No sacrifice is too great to accomplish the 
work. But it would be the most fatal error to allow the idea to 
gain credence that this sister edifice is for a class apart, that the 
nation as a whole has no interest in it, and that to use endowments, 
either to strengthen its foundations, or to gather aspirants to share 
its advantages, is in any way to rob the poor. 

The Commission may safely allow the results of their work to 
answer eventually the charges brought against them. In regard to 
several of the largest endowments, indeed, their action was 
anticipated by previous reform. The uniquivocal success of such 
institutions as Watson's College in Edinburgh, Hutchesons' 
Schools in Glasgow, Gordon's College in Aberdeen, will sm-ely 
impress the people with the wisdom of the plan on which they have 
been reorganized. These models have been followed by the recent 
Commission ; and the result of their labours is seen not only in the 
great reorganized institutions bearing the name of George Heriot in 
Edinburgh, but also in numerous lesser schools which the reformed 
application of endowments has enabled them to establish in various 
parts of Scotland. 

Another sphere of higher education has quite recently been sub- 
mitted to the action of an Executive Commission — that of the 
Universities. The Scottish Universities present neither in their 
foundation nor in their history, any very close analogy with the 
Universities of England. They were not a gradual aggregation of 
colleges owing their origin to private beneficence and gradually 
forming the aggregate of a University. The three pre-Reformation 
Universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, were founded 
by Bulls of the Pope : the last, that of Edinburgh, was founded by 
the initiation of the Town Council, and under the patronage of the 
Crown. Such elements of collegiate foundations as once existed in 
St. Andrews and Aberdeen have almost disappeared. Throughout 
their history, all the Universities have been constantly subject to 
the active exercise of public authority ; they were early deprived 
of the main part of their original property, and have since subsisted 
pai'tly on annually voted grants by Parliament, and partly on the 
fees of students, which a practical monopoly of professional educa- 
tion secured to them. But this monopoly was preserved only by 
the fact of their conforming themselves very strictly to the re- 
quirements of the nation. In the widest sense they were national 



54 STATE EDUCATION. 

institutions, with small fees, and easilj' accessible to the poorest. 
'J'he curriculum which they afibrded and the standard of attainment 
at which they aimed, were both suited to a poor nation, to which a 
prolonged preliminary training was impossible ; and their intimate 
connection with the schools of the country kept their range of in- 
struction strictly upon the lines which were adapted to the require- 
ments of the Scottish people, which before the development of 
Scottish commerce, rendered a professional career the object of 
chief ambition to the most promising Scottish youth. Popular as 
they were, therefore, the Scottish Universities were limited in the 
range of studies which the}^ offered. The Church, Medicine, and 
the Law, were the spheres which the talented Scotch bo}'- sought to 
enter ; and a single course of studies, comprising Classics, Mathe- 
matics, and Mental Philosophy, was held to be the course most 
fitted as a preliminar}^ to all these professions. Of late j^ears the 
social conditions of the country have been changed. Commerce, 
Colonial enterprise, and the practical application of mechanical 
science, now offer tempting careers. The professions no longer 
present the one goal of ambition ; and if, therefore, the Universities 
are to hold their place as popular and national institutions, iliQj 
must offer courses of training fitted for these new careers, as the old 
course was fitted for the three learned professions. So to adapt 
them is the work that lies before the Commission which is now 
entering on its labours, and to this the efforts of the Commission 
must be chiefi}^ directed. No mistake will be more fatal than to 
attempt a reconstruction of the Universities according to any pre- 
conceived ideal or any foreign model. They are tlie product 
of Scottish history, and the result of Scottish requirements. These 
requirements have changed and have multiplied, and the range of 
the Universities must accordingly be widened. But they must 
remain as they have been, popular institutions, less occupied with 
minute scholarship or research than with practical educational 
needs. The Scottish youth will not be likely to spend a larger part 
of their lives at the Universities in the future than in the past. 
The expenses of a University education must not be increased. But 
on their old lines they must meet the new requirements of the day. 
As they do so, they will not interfere with, but will enormously 
increase, the functions of the Secondary Schools. Already the 
School Boards are doing much in the way of developing these 
schools : and b}" means of reformed endowments, their equipments 
are being increased, and a modern and technical side is being added 
to the old classical and mathematical course. A new impulse will 
be given to all this when the Universities introduce a Avider choice 
of studies ; and when, by their means, new aims are definitely set 
before the Schools, the latter will be able to press with gTeater 
force their claims to more liberal local and Imperial assistance. 
The whole range of Scottish Education presents a sufficient 
number of flaws and gaps ; but in its forward progress it has these 
advantages on its side — a sound tradition, a long growth, a 
foundation in the history of the country ; poj^ular sympathy and 
interest, and a determination to adapt all its resources energetically 



THE SCOTCH SYSTEM. 55 

to meet new requirements. It has at least avoided one educational 
danger — that of apathy and stagnation. 

We have left to the last any reference to the most recent and 
momentous change which Scottish Education has undergone. Free 
Education, or such "assistance" to Education as might at least 
escape the evident anomaly of forcing a man to pay for what he is 
forced by statute to supply to his child, has long been a question of 
academical discussion. No one denies that it presents certain un- 
favourable aspects, and that the diminution in parental responsibility 
may involve, at first, some diminution in parental ambition or interest. 
But such a result must surely be short lived. The compulsorj'- law 
can be enforced with far greater strictness when the doors of the 
school are opened free of charge ; and compulsion in one generation 
produces in the next an anxiety to partake of benefits which are 
realized more distinctly in proportion as they are widely spread. 
And even those who gave greatest weight to the possible drawbacks 
were forced to recognise that the change was inevitable. It was left 
to Scotland to end the academical discussion by a quick practical 
advance. In 1888 the Chancellor of the Exchequer assigned to 
local authorities the product of certain taxes, chiefly that of the 
Probate Duties. When the English Local Government Act was 
passed the County Councils received their share as a subsidy to 
local rates. This boon Scotland denied herself; and instead she 
insisted on devoting a sum, which will amount to about a quarter of 
a million annually, to the relief of fees. The resolution being taken, 
the means and plan, according to which it might be carried out, 
were quickly devised. An arrangement by which the sum should 
be distributed amongst all State-aided schools, on condition of their 
relieving fees up to a certain standard, was devised. Into the details 
and intricacies of this scheme it is unnecessary to enter here ; but 
it is enough to say that from the 1st of October, 1889, the com- 
pulsory standards (up to and including the fifth) are entirety free in 
3041 out of 3126 Scottish Schools, and in 774 of them the boon of 
free education is extended even further. The change was easily 
accomplished ; and throughout the whole of Scotland, in spite 
of varying conditions, and apparently insuperable difficulties, the 
practical good sense of the nation has enabled it to effect what is 
little less than a revolution with scarcely any perceptible friction, 
and with an expedition that was marvellous. 

In England, this stage of education has not yet been reached, and 
many of her leading minds are now agitated with the question 
whether she will soon follow where Scotland has led the way. The 
principle was decided by the debate of the 21st February in the 
British Parliament, and it is to be hoped that no difficulties will 
stand in the way of carrying into practice in England what has 
been found beneficial elsewhere. For Scotland, it is only necessary 
to add that it will be for her to complete the national system by 
an extension of Secondary Education on a scale which will give her 
an educational lead amongst the nations, and secure for her more 
firmly that rich inheritance which it is her business to preserve 
and develope. 



PART IV. 

NATIONAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND. 

Section 1. — Historical. 

For a due elucidation of the subject of National Education in 
Ireland, it is necessary to look back to the time of Henry VIII., 
when for political purposes, rather than for any real interest in the 
intellectual progress of the people, the Act 28 Henry VIII., c. 15, 
was passed in the Irish Parliament enacting : " That the said 
English tongue, habit and order, may be from henceforth (and 
without ceasing or returning at any time to Irish habit or language), 
used by all men "... Every priest was to learn the English 
tongue, and to cause his people "to bid their beads in English." 
The next educational law was the 12th Elizabeth, estabHshing, in 
1570, the Protestant Diocesan Schools, one in each diocese, which 
nominally continued until the disestablishment of the Irish Church 
in 1869. The 7th William III., c. 4, 1695, was the next important 
provision in respect to Irish education. It enacted that Ii-ish 
Roman Catholics should not go for the education denied to them at 
home to foreign countries. 

The Protestant Charter Schools were established in 1753. The 
Charter recites : " That in man}' parts of this Kingdom there were 
great tracts of land almost entire!}- inhabited by Papists ; that the 
generality of the Poi^ish natives were kept by their Clergy in gross 
ignorance, and bred uj) in great disail'ection to the Government ; that 
the creating Protestant Charter Schools in these places would be 
absolutely necessary for their conversion and civilization." These 
schools received during their existence under parliamentary support 
i(j 1,105, 869.* Until 1803 they received no pupils except Roman 
Catholics. The hollowness of the administration of them is exposed 
by the great philanthropist Howard : " The children were sickly, pale, 
and such miserable objects, that they were a disgrace to all society." 

Whilst this course of paternal legislation was proceeding, no 
thought was given to the substance of education itself, to books for 
the young, the training of teachers, the erection of school-houses, or 
any of the thousand needs of popular instruction.! The motto 

* Eoyal Ccmmission, 1868-70. Kep. p. 492. 

t Address of Sir Patrick Keenan, K.C.M.G., C.B., to Social Science Congress, Dublin. 
1881. 



THE IRISH SYSTEM. 57 

might have been inscribed on all, " The zeal of mine house hath 
eaten me up ! " The Irish people were not, however, destitute of love 
of learning, as we find testified by Dr. O'Donovan and other Irish 
scholars, including Mr. Eugene O'Curry in his evidence in 1849 
before the Parliamentary Committee on Public Libraries. Their 
ancient laws afi"ord evidence of their civilization from a remote past, 
and German philologists have shown the importance of the Irish 
language. The first real attempt to remedy the evils of the old 
system of educational legislation for Ireland was in 1805, when a 
Commission was appointed to report on schools of public or 
charitable foundation in Ireland. This Commission made several 
reports, and testified to the general desire of the people for educa- 
tion. In 1811, a society was founded in Ireland, popularly known 
as the *' Kildare Place Society," comprising both Roman Catholics 
and Protestants, for the encouragement of schools in which the 
reading of the Holy Scriptures, without note or comment, would 
form part of the daily curriculum. The Society obtained grants 
from Parliament, commencing with £6,980 in the year 1814, and 
subsequently rising to about £30,000 a year, and continuing for 
several years at that rate. At first the Society made somewhat fair 
progress, but the requirement as to Scripture reading for all the 
pupils eventually proved fatal to its success. Opposition was 
excited amongst the Poman Catholics, the teachers of the Society's 
Training College and Schools were denounced, the pupils fell away ; 
at length the Duke of Leinster, and other distinguished Protestants 
as well as Catholics, resigned connexion with the Society, and soon 
afterwards, in 1831, the Parliamentary Grants ceased. 

We have, however, here to observe the fact, that a real effort 
was made in Ireland towards establishing popular education some 
years before England first attempted anything resembling a Govern- 
mental system, which was not until 1839. The failure of Kildare 
Place Society brings us to the birth of the present system of National 
Education. 

Section 2. — The National System and its results. 

Of all the agencies brought into existence in the present century 
for redeeming past misgovernment in Ireland, perhaps the most 
pervading and effective is the System of National Education, insti- 
tuted in October 1831, in a letter from Mr. Stanley (afterwards Lord 
Derby) to the Duke of Leinster, when Lord Grey was Premier, 
Lord Anglesea was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Mr. Stanley 
himself the Chief Secretary. The letter describes the new system 
as one for combined moral and literary and separate religious 
instruction ; the books used are to be under the sanction of the Board ; 
and the Board are to permit and encourage the Clergy to give 
religious instruction to the children of their respective persuasions. 

The constitution of the Board itself should give a security to the 
Country, " that whilst the interests of religion are not overlooked, 
the most scrupulous care should be taken not to interfere with the 
peculiar tenets of any description of Christian pupils." 



58 STATE EDUCATION. 

The National S^ystem was thus a compromise, whereby the special 
interests of the denominations as regards religious teaching were 
to be harmonized with the general demand for safe and efficient 
literary and moral education. To administer this system a Board 
was appointed of eminent individuals, — independent, and representa- 
tive of the various sections of the Community. 

The original Board constituted by the Government to undertake 
tliis great work comprised seven members, of whom two were 
Archbishops, one Protestant, Dr. Whately, the other Catholic, Dr. 
Murray. In 1838 three additional members were appointed ; in 1839 
two more ; and so on until we find in 1852 that there were fifteen 
members, of whom six were Roman Catholics. In 1845 the Board 
was incorporated by Eoyal Charter ; and in 1861 a Supplemental 
Charter was granted under which ten members must be Roman 
Catholics and ten Protestants. The only paid member of the Board 
is the Resident Commissioner, who is the centre and Chief of the 
general administration. 

The inauguration of the National System was hailed with satis- 
faction by the great bod}^ of the Catholic Clergy and Laity. It 
was bitterly opposed by the Clergy of the Established Church, 
who resented the violation of the exclusive right that had beeii claimed 
by their predecessors, and that the}' themselves had inherited, of 
educating the entire Community. The Presbyterians shared with 
them a common apprehension as to the enormous power, under the 
system, that would be given to the Catholic Clergj^, and they too 
showed great hostility. There was, moreover, in the Catholic 
Church itself, no inconsiderable section, headed by Archbishop 
MacHale, who would not touch the compromise, holding fast to 
the venerable maxim : " The Jews have no dealings with the 
Samaritans ! " The fact stands out clear, however, in the history of 
the system, that — as made from the standpoint of the Common- 
wealth — it was a sincere endeavour to meet the demands of the 
Catholics of Ireland. The plan was cautiously accepted by Mr. 
O'Connell in Parliament. The Roman Catholic Bishops, in 1826, 
whilst proposing safeguards, passed, inter alia, the following 
Resolution : — " That the admission of Protestants and Roman 
Catholics into the same Schools for the purpose of Literary instruc- 
tion may, under existing circumstances, be allowed, provided sufficient 
care be taken to protect the religion of the children, and to furnish 
them with adequate means of instruction ; " * and Bishop Doyle, the 
vehement denouncer of the Kildare Place Society, and demander of 
Cathq^c Schools, was quite prepared to accept the principle of the 
system : "I cannot refrain from expressing the ardent desire I feel 
of having the children of all Irishmen without distinction united 
in Schools and in every relation of life ; " moreover, this prelate 
issued a Circular Letter to his Clergy in December, 1831, recom- 
mending them to adopt the National System (Rept. Commrs. N.E. 
1839). 

The Royal Commissioners of 1868-70, recording the general 

* Royal Commission, 1868-70, p. 122. 



THE IRISH SYSTEM. 59 

sentiment of Roman Catholics at the inauguration, state (Report, 
J). 70) : "In general they received the new system willingly." 

The beginnings were very humble, and gave but faint forecast of 
the future developments. In 1834, the Schools numbered 739, and 
were attended by 107,042 children. The salaries of the Teachers 
from Imperial funds were £*12 for Masters and £8 for Mistresses. 
The population of Ireland at the time was 8,000,000. The Com- 
mission looked forward to an ultimate development, when the 
Schools would number 5,000, and the annual expenditure by the 
State on National Education would rise to ii200,000. The event 
compares favourably with this moderate anticipation. 

In the year 1840 occurred what is historically known as the 
junction of the Presbyterians with the Board, when the Commis- 
sioners first definitely recognised the distinction between Vested and 
Non-Vested Schools ; in the former of which, built by aid from the 
Slate, the Pastors or others, approved b.y the parents, have the right 
of access at convenient times to impart religious instruction to the 
pupils of their own creed ; whilst in the case of the Non- Vested 
Schools, Managers are not required to give such access. This 
concession in no way infringed the great principle of the Conscience 
Clause, which must be as rigorousl}^ enforced in Non- Vested as in 
Vested Schools. The Conscience Clause itself has always had for 
its object the protection of the conscience of every child, but it 
underwent various modifications of form, until it assumed its present 
scope, namely, that when the religion of a child is once entered on 
the School Register, the teacher, if of a different religious persua- 
si(,)n, must not permit the child — unless under the written authority 
of the parent on a certificate duly witnessed — to remain in attend- 
ance whilst religious instruction is proceeding. 

The Conscience Clause is, of course, mainly in full efficiency in 
those Schools which have a mixed attendance, that is, 48 per cent, 
of all the Schools of the country, most of the minorities in the 
mixed schools consisting only of a few pupils. 

The following evidence before the Lords Committee of 1854, given 
by a distinguished Roman Catholic divine. Very Rev. Dean Meyler, 
who was also a Commissioner of National Education, throws a very 
gratifying light on the system in its early years : 

" The Pope, although in the beginning he had entertained a very 
difierent opinion, at length called upon the Bishops to thank the 
Government for giving so much of its wealth to the poor children of 
theu' country ; ' Let it go on,' he said, ' but be cautious against the 
use of improper books.' " 

Thenceforward the National System advanced by leaps and 
bounds. Nothing could arrest the tide of progress ; not even the 
temporary difficulties that arose in the course of time, mainly, it 
must be confessed, through influences from the Protestant side, to 
warp the system, if possible, from its direct aim of excluding the 
l)ossibility of proselytism. The Schools rapidly multiplied, and 
children gathered to them by hundreds of thousands, and a Social 
and Political Revolution was advancing. General intelligence was 
alread}-^ producing fruit in popular literature and the omnipresent 



6o STATE EDUCATION. 

newspaper. The peasant in his thatched cabin beheld in the magic 
broadsheet a new world. Political life was opening to his view. 
From the nursery of the hmnble National School he had come at 
length to realise that " knowledge is power." Different, indeed, 
was his position from that of his progenitors in the olden time, 
when — 

" still crouching 'neath the sheltering hedge or stretched on mountain fern, 
The teacher and his pupils met feloniously to learn 1 " 



Section 3. — Difficulties regarding Building Grants and 
School Books. 

The difficulties just referred to, that beset the Board at intervals 
of its earlier history were few, but some were serious. Space would 
not permit to revert at any length to old controversies ; but there 
were two matters of such importance that they must be noticed. 
The first had relation to building grants, and the second to books. 
Before the Charter of 1845 was granted, under which the Commis- 
sioners in their corporate capacity could have schools vested in 
themselves and hold lands, the Schools built by aid from the State 
had to be vested in trustees for educational purposes ; but this 
arrangement, after the grant of the Charter, was discontinued. 
This step led to suspicion on the part of the Roman Catholic 
Prelates as to possible ulterior objects, and in 1850 was denounced 
by the Synod of Eoman Catholic Bishops which was held at 
Thurles. 

As regards the other difficulty, certain books written by Archbishop 
Whately on the "Truths" and the "Evidences" of Christianity 
were, for a time, allowed to be used in the National Schools during 
the combined instruction of the pupils. The Commissioners in 
1853 decreed their banishment. A veritable "Battle of the Books " 
ensued. The Archbishop committed official suicide b}^ resigning 
his commission in protest against the Board's action. Great ex- 
citement was created amongst Protestants almost in every part of 
the Empire that culminated in the appointment, in 1854, of an 
unusually strong Committee of the House of Lords. The Com- 
mittee, however, failed to make a Report on the evidence taken, and 
its enquiries practically ended in a vindication of the Board, and in 
the permanent exclusion of the books as unsuited for common use 
in the National Schools. 

The difficult}^ in the former case was not got over until 1861, 
when the Board reverted to the original arrangement as to building 
grants, giving henceforth to Managers the option of having the 
Schools vested in trustees, or vested in the Commissioners in their 
corporate capacity. As the result of this remedial action, we find 
there are now 



Schools Vested in Trustees . 

Vested in the Commissioners 



• ^'l^l } Total 2,933 
The activity in respect to School buildings in Ireland may be judged 



THE IRISH SYSTEM. 6i 

from the following figures taken from the last Report of the Com- 
missioners : 

Building grants made within the last seven years : — 

To Roman Catholic Managers . . . £172,630 

To Managers of the late Established Church . 6,847 

To Presbyterian Managers .... 10,980 



Total (7 years) ^6190,457 

It would appear that the work of building Schools might proceed 
even more briskly, but for the difficult}' often experienced in obtaining 
sites.* In view of the abolition long since of grants to build in 
England, we must say that Ireland is especially privileged in having 
such aid still offered to the Managers of her National Schools. 

Besides the 2,933 Vested Schools there are 5,643 Non- Vested 
Schools. 

Section 4. — School Management and Inspection. 

Managership of Schools under the Irish National System is 
unique in character. It is local government by one man, and, as a 
rule, that man the Priest, the Parson, or the Presbj'terian Minister. 
The Manager is, in point of fact, supreme. He holds the api^oint- 
ment and dismissal of the Teachers ; the arrangement of the Time 
Table of daily School business is under his control ; the determi- 
nation of religious instruction is his vital concern ; — all these 
functions, however, for their due exercise, coming under the 
purview of the Inspector of Schools. It is scarcel}' necessary to 
observe that the vast bulk of the Schools are under the management 
of the Clergy. 

In the year 1881 (the latest returns we have been able to 
obtain) the distribution of the Schools as to management was as 
follows : — 

1,481 Roman Catholic Managers govern 5,128 National Schools. 
786 Church of Ireland „ 1,365 

536 Presbyterian ,, 814 ,, ,, 

90 Other denominations ,, 124 ,, „ 

Of course, the Schools under the Roman Catholic Managers are, 
generally, larger than those under Protestants, as may be judged 
from the total number of pupils of the respective denominations on 
the rolls of National Schools : — 

Roman Catholic pupils . . 826,181, or 77'9 per cent. 

Church of Ireland pupils . 109,687, or 10-3 

Presbyterian pupils . . 111*072, or 10"5 ,, 

Other denomination pupils . 13,955, or 1*3 ,, 

* Act 44 & 45 Vic. c. 65, 1881, was introduced to enable limited owners to grant 
sites for National Schools in Ireland. Mr. Gampbell-Bannerman more recently, when 
Chief Secretary, proposed a Bill for the compulsory acquisition of sites for such 
purpose, but it fell through. 



62 STATE EDUCATION. 

We cannot dismiss this subject without reference to an important 
consideration. Whilst the power of the Local Manager is prac- 
tically absolute — subject to the Conscience Clause — a power certainly 
far beyond what any other country in the world that has a public 
system of education recognizes, a power, moreover, so great that we 
have seen Archbishop Walsh not long since intervening to check it 
by means of episcopal authority in respect to the dismissal of 
teachers, yet we find that the Managers are responsible for only one- 
fifth part of the burden of maintaining the Schools : — 

Income in 1888. 

From Government Grants to the Schools . £737,123 

(Rate per pupil . . sBl 10s. 2|^.) 

From Local Sources .... £194,984 

(Rate per pupil . . £0 7s. llf c^.) 

The duties of a School Manager are no sinecure. He has to 
check and certify the School returns, and afford to the Commis- 
sioners his guarantee for the correctness of these accounts as well 
as for the conduct of the Teachers, and the observance of the Rules 
of the Board. On the whole, the Managerial office in Ireland 
presents an interesting instance of denominational mediation between 
a mixed Board and a mixed Community, for the common good. 

In immediate connexion with the duties of Managers, we have to 
glance at the kindred topic of inspection. 

It is the practice of the Board — we think it a wise one — to subject 
all candidates for the office of Inspector to Examination in an ex- 
tensive and appropriate programme, by the Civil Service Commis- 
sioners. This programme is the " scientific frontier " against all 
attempts at jobbery ; and, especially in earlier years, when many 
oblique influences tried to beset the administration in this respect, 
the arrangement to shut the door against them was highly prudent. 

Further, with a view to commanding the public confidence in the 
fair play of the administration, the Board appoint one-half of the 
Inspection Corps Protestant and the other half Catholic. Their 
Inspectors, however, have no responsibility as regards the efficiency, 
&c., of religious instruction in the National Schools, the Managers 
looking zealously to that department. The Inspectors' function 
being secular, there is freedom from cross-sectional business, such 
as is involved in denominational inspection, and there is corre- 
sponding economy of time and cost. 



Section 5. — School-Teachei's and Maintenance. 

On the 31st December, 1888, there were 7,921 Principal Teachers 
and 3,166 Assistant Teachers, all of whom were Certificated, in 
employment in the National Schools. 

The pay of National Teachers comprises Class Salaries (fixed) ; 
Results-fees payable on ascertained proficiency of pupils at the 



THE IRISH SYSTEM. 



63 



annual Results examination of the schools ; and local emoluments, 
such as school pence of pupils, subscriptions, and (in a few Poor- 
Law Unions) contributions from the rates. 

The last Report of the Commissioners gives the following par- 
ticulars under these heads for the Principal Teachers. 



AVERAGE INCOME OF PRINCIPAL TEACHEKS. 





Number of 


FROM PARLIAMKNTARY 
GRAUT IN AID. 


FROM LOCAL SOURCES. 


















Class of Teacher. 


Teachers 
included 
in Return. 


Class 
Salary and 
Good Ser- 
vice Salary. 


Results- 

fee.s, 

Gratuities, 

i&c, from 


Results- 
fees from 
Rates. 


Local Con- 
tributions, 

including 
School 

pence of 


Total. 
















Pupils. 




1 






£ i-. a. 


£ .V. ./. 


£ 


s. 


d. 


£ s. (/. 


£ 


s. </. 


Males : — 




















I^ 


224 


70 9 3^ 


32 9 Oi 


4 


2 


'^ 


43 10 6^ 


150 


11 1.L 


P. . 


474 


.53 15 8 


25 1 0^ 


1 


17 


n 


22 19 2 


103 


13 


II. . 


1,954 


44 6 11 


21 10 S^ 


1 


9 


2 


16 11 2| 


83 


18 0^ 


III. . . . 

Total . 


L474 


35 1 


16 18 5 





19 


3 


12 7 7 


65 


6 3 


4,126 


















Average for alll 

classes . .j" 




43 10 7 


20 17. 8 


1 


9 


H 


17 15 3 


83 


2 11 


Females : — 


















I^ division . 


150 


57 14 10 


28 3 3 


2 


9 


10 


23 4 10 111 


12 9 , 

9 2."J 


P division . 


353 


43 12 7 


23 13 llf 


1 


15 


6f 


18 7 1 


87 


II. . 


1,268 


34 15 1^ 


19 16 11 


1 


8 


41 13 6 .51 


69 


6 l(li 


III. . 

Total . . 


976 


27 10 3| 


16 12 5 


1 





H 


10 19 01 


56 


2 0| 


2,747 
















Average for all \ 
classes . . J 




34 11 7 


19 12 11 


1 


7 


n 


13 13 45 69 


5 6 



Although we are far from saying that the condition of the Irish 
Teachers is entirely satisfactory, or indeed anything like it, yet we 
observe that in the table there is no indication of the cases where 
the incomes of husbands and wives as teachers are combined. We 
have reason to believe that there are large numbers of instances of 
such educational partnership in the carrying on of Schools, to the 
family benefit. 

This table, however, when compared with the incomes of the 
English Teachers, shows rather hard lines of provision for the Irish 
Staff, but also shows that the deficiency is entirely in the local aid. 
In 1875, Sir Michael Hicks- Beach tried to remedy this defect by 
bringing in a Bill authorizing Boards of Guardians to contribute 
out of the rates towards augmenting the Results-fees. This Act, 
however, has failed to realize the hopes of the Government, the 
contributions last year from a few Unions amounting to only 
£17,683 ; whereas, had all the Unions availed themselves of the 
power conferred on them by the Act, the amount would have been 
£101,000. 



64 STATE EDUCATION, 

In 1885, Mr. Campbell-Bannermann, with the approval of the 
Commissioners, brought in a Bill to secure the contributions by 
making the rating compulsory, but the Bill never reached a second 
reading. 

Loans Acts were passed by the Legislature in 1875 and 1879 
to enable Managers of Schools to provide Residences for their 
Teachers. An Act passed in August 1879 that appropriated the 
sum of £1,300,000 of the Surplus of the Irish Church Fund towards 
the establishment of a Pensions' Fund for the Teachers. One- 
foui'th of the entu'e annual premiums is contributed by the Teachers 
themselves, the remaining three-fourths being met bj^the interest on 
the apj)ropriated sum. The teachers complain that the calculations 
of the scheme have been made on the hypothesis of lives approach- 
ing the longevity enjoyed by Methuselah — an hjqjothesis which, 
relieved of its exaggerated form of the description, is, we should 
think, susceptible of some actuarial improvement in favour of the 
Teachers' Pension prospects. 

As regards that part of the Teachers' income that concerns 
results-fees, it is so important, not only as a means for increasing 
their remuneration, but also as an instrumentality of educational 
efficiency, that it deserves more than a passing notice. Soon after 
Mr. Lowe (now Lord Sherbrook) metamorphosed the system of 
Parliamentary grants for elementary education in England, by a 
S3 stem of payments for results, instead of personal salaries to the 
Teachers, Mr. Fortescue (now Lord Carlingford), Chief Secretary 
for Ireland, suggested to the Board of National Education in Ireland 
a trial of the new system on a partial scale. This was in 1866. 
The Commissioners approved of Lord Carlingford's suggestion, but 
owing to a change of Government, the proposal fell for the moment 
into abeyance. In the meantime, some of the leading Educational 
officers of the Board were engaged in a consideration of the whole 
question, and the examinations of some of the National Schools were 
conducted experimental!}' as to its effect educationally, and its 
bearings upon the payments of the National Teachers. Early in 
1868, Mr. Keenan (now The Eight Honourable Sir Patrick Keenan) 
formulated the results of all those exj)eriments and considerations 
in a scheme which, in the course of his evidence, he submitted to the 
Royal Commission which was then under the Presidency of Lord 
Powis, inquiring into the Irish National System.* 

The English system was held to be faulty in three most important 
respects : — 

(1) It abolished the personality of the teacher in his relation with 
the Education Department, by the cancelling of all personal 
grants of salary ; (2) It limited the grants to a School to the 
precarious issues of the examination for results ; (3) The fee 
for a Pass in Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic was an all- 
round one — the same for every subject and every class. 

Sir Patrick Keenan 's plan was to maintain the individuality of 
the Teacher, to continue the old system of personal salary to him, 

* Rep. Eoyal Commission, 1868-70 — Evidence, vol. iii., p. 89. 



THE IRISH SYSTEM. 65 

and to award him, as a bonus or supplementary grant, fees for 
ascertained results. This principle was adopted by Lord Powis' 
Commission. Further, Sir Patrick's plan, instead of the uniform 
fee, as in England, for every subject and every class, graduated the 
fee according to the importance of the subject and the class of the 
child. A pupil, for instance, in the first, or lowest class, could earn 
for its teacher a certain amount of results-fees, whilst a pupil in the 
sixth class might earn more than double tliat amount. The gi'eat 
advantage of this system was that it equilibrated the reward of 
labour, and held out very cogent inducements to the teachers to 
qualify their pupils for promotion from class to class. 

The Commissioners, in their investigations as to the best form in 
which a system of payment by results might be administered, had 
under serious investigation various other Suggestions and Schemes; 
but, in 1871, the S3^stem which we have described was partially, and 
in 1872 was fully, applied in the examination of the scholars and 
the payment of the Teachers. 

Although introduced after so many years of close investigation 
and experiment, the Commissioners, feeling that in the light of 
experience, the system as a mode of examination, and as governing 
the course of instruction in their Schools, was susceptible of develop- 
ment, have every year since 1871 held a Conference of their Head 
Inspectors to consider its operations and to extend its eificiency. 
Scarcely a year has since then passed without some new develop- 
ment — either in detail as to the incidents of examination or the 
matter of instruction — as the outcome of the Conferences of their 
Head Inspectors. 

But the ears of the Commissioners were also open from year to 
year to the representations of the Teachers ; for, as a rule, at their 
annual Congress a Deputation of them waited upon the Resident 
Commissioner, and at his ready bidding unfolded their views and 
suggestions as to the ''results" programme, and the general pro- 
cedure of the examinations. These representations were in due 
course presented to the Head Inspectors for deliberation ; and 
finally, if approved, reached the Board to be fiated for incorporaticm 
in their Code. 



Section 6. — Reforms and extensions of the Educational system. 

A narrative of these changes would engage us in such an historical 
account of Irish Primary Education as would outstrip the bounds 
we have in view in writing this article ; but as a sample we would 
point out the division of the Fifth and Sixth classes (the highest), 
each division occupying the course of a year, thus extending tlie 
period of a child's instruction, beyond the mere infant stage, from 
six to eight years, each year carrying its own results-fees for pro- 
ficiency in the subjects of the school programme. 

We cannot, however, fail to notice, as bearing upon the utilitarian 
aspect of Irish National Education, that one of the developments 

VOL. I. F 



66 STATE EDUCATION. 

of the "results" programme is to make agricultural instruction 
obligatory for boys, and carrying a substantial and additional results- 
fee for proficiency in all rural schools, in the fourth, and in each 
division of the fifth and sixth classes. Nor again can we fail to 
glance at the recent rule* which, whilst declaring that the literary 
education of girls who have passed the two stages of the Fifth class 
is substantially adequate, lays down that the remainder of their 
school-life should be mainly devoted to Industrial training, — such 
training carrying with it results-fees to the Teachers equivalent to 
those paid on the old literary programme. 

But it must be added that the Results system, whilst encouraging, 
by the award of fees, proficiency in Reading, Spelling, Writing, 
Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography, Book-keeping, Needlework (for 
Girls), Agriculture, and Vocal Music in the Ordinary Programme, 
has developed, in a course of Extra branches carrjdng results-fees, 
a curriculum which embraces Drawing, Geometry, Algebra, Men- 
suration, Trigonometry, Handicraft (for Boys), Sewing-Machine, 
Domestic Economy, Cookery, Dairying, Management of Poultry 
(for Girls), Hygiene, the Physical Sciences, Navigation, Classics, 
French, German, Irish, and even Instrumental Music. 

But this does not represent all that the Commissioners have 
from time to time been attempting to accomplish in the perfecting 
of their scheme, as it is well known that "My Lords" of the 
Treasury unfortunately stand in front in many important questions 
to resist some of their most interesting proposals ; for we learn 
from Sir Patrick Keenan's evidence before Lord Cross's Royal 
Commission of 1887 (Q. 53,290 — 2) that their educational policy 
in regard to Programmes of certain Extra Branches as well as 
the adoption of Kindergarten, has been called in question by the 
Treasury. The following is his statement in reference to a new 
Programme in Geometry : — 

"We sent the Programme to the Treasury with an intimation 
that it would involve some extra expenditure, and the decision of 
the Treasury was, that the old programme was good enough for the 
needs of the country." 

The Results system, however, which in the year 1871 was inau- 
gurated under ver}^ humble auspices, has thus by gradual develop- 
ments been brought to attain dimensions which we apprehend are 
3iot discernible in any other system of public instruction in the 
world. 

To record what the Commissioners may very naturally regard as 
triumphs of their system, in simplest fashion, we must content 
ourselves by noting Avhat has been done for the "three Rs," or Keys 
of Knowledge, as they are often designated. The percentages of 
jjupils who passed were : — 

Tear. Eeading. Writine-. Arithmetic. 

1870 . . 70-5 57-7 54'4 

1888 . . 94-1 95-9 82.3 

* Commissioners' N. E. Report, 1888, p. 21. 



THE IRISH SYSTEM. 



67 



Tlie results-system in Ireland lias contributed largely' to improved 
attendance of i)upils, tlie average daily attendance having risen from 
355,821 in 1872 to 493,883 in 1888, and the total number examined 
for results-fees from 315,646 in the former to 565,468 in the latter 
year. The system has liad its effect on the homes of the children in 
awakening an increased interest in the school arrangements of their 
children on the part of the parents, and in quickening the emula- 
tion of the scholars themselves in a manner unknown previously. 

The Scale of Results-Fees, last year, is as follows : — 



SCALE OF RESULTS-FEES. 
Ordinary and Optional Brandies. 



Subjects. 


Infants. 


Fir.st. 


Second. 

.S. (/. 

2'"'o 
1 

1 

2 

u (; 
i"'g 


Third. 


Fourth. 


Fifth 

Class, 

1st 
Stage. 


Si.\th 
Fiftli Class, 
Class, 1st and 

2nd 2nd 
Stage. 1 Exami- 
nations. 


! 

Infants' Course 

Readi ng . . . . 

Spelling 

Writing . . . 

Arithmetic . 

Grammar . . . 

Geograpliy . 
Book-keeping (optional) 
Needlework (girls) . . 
Agriculture . 
Vocal music (optional) . 


N. d. 
3 U 

... 


s. d. 

2 
1 
1 
1 


s. d. 

2 G 
1 

1 G 

2 G 
1 
1 

1 "u 

2'""g 


s. d. 

2""6 
1 

1 6 

2 6 
1 6 

1 

2"'o 
4 

2 G 


s. d. 

2'"*6 
1 

1 G 

2 6 
1 G 

1 G 

2 G 
2 G 
5 
2 G 


,5. d. 

2 (! 
1 

1 6 

2 G 
1 G 

1 6 

2 6 
2 6 

2 G 


s. d. 

2-G 

1 

2 

n 

1 G 
1 G 
8 
8 
5 

3 



Uxtra B ranches-Fees for Passes. 



Drawing. 


Six examinations ac- 
cording to class. 


Third 

Class. 


Fifth 
Fourth Class, 
Class. 1st 
■ Stage. 


Fiftli 

Class, 

2nd 

Stage. 


Sixth 
Class, 
1st and 

2]id 
Exami- 
nations. 


s. d. 
2 G 


S. d. .S-. d. S. d. 

2 G 2 G 2 G 


s. d. 
3 () 


For pupils of .^th and 
Gth classes : 

Girls reading-book \ 
and domestic ( 
economy (com- { 
bined) . . ) 

Greek . . . 

Latin 

Irish . . . . 

French . 

Other extra-^ 
branches ap- 
proved by Com- 
missioners (set 1 
forth page GG, 
supra) y 


Two exams. 3«. each 

Three „ lO.f. each 
'J'hrec „ IO5. each 
Three ,, lO.s-. each 
Three ,, as. each 

Number of "1 
exams. as 1-5.?. each 
per code J 


Each series of examinations may 
commence in the 1st or 2nd stage 
of 5th class, or in the 1st or 2nd 
year of Gth class, and whenever 
commenced may be completed, 
except in the case of Navigation, 
which can be commenced only in 
Gth class. 

In thoroughly organized infants' 
schools or departments, is. per 
infants' pass is payable ; and if 
Kindergarten be efficiently prac- 
tised, 2s. additional to the onli- 
nary fees per pupil in Infants' 1st, '■ 
2nd, and 3rd classes. 



68 



STATE EDUCATION. 



Originallj' the grants from public funds to National Schools bore 
only a small proportion to the total cost of maintenance, and the 
early reports of the Board frequently assert that the salaries j)ayable 
were only supplemental to local payments.* The Grants have, hoAv- 
ever, steadily increased from the first modest salaries of ^12 a year 
to Masters, and £8 to Mistresses, to the present scale, which, irre- 
spective of Results-Fees, rises according to class from £35 the 
lowest, to iG70 the highest rate for Masters, and from £27 10s. the 
lowest, to £58 the highest rate for Mistresses, with £35 to Male and 
£27 to Female Assistants. The total Salaries from the Board in 
1888—9 reached £427,069, whilst the Eesults-Fees from the Board 
amounted to £202,266, a supplemental income of nearty one-half 
the class salaries. In addition, the sum of £10,524 was jjaid to the 
Teachers for special instruction of theu' Monitors, and the sum of 
£52,931 went to the Monitors themselves in small salaries. 

The following figures show the development, since the year 1840, 
in the number of Schools, number of Scholars, and the Parlia- 
mentary Grant : — 



Year. 


Population. 


National 
Schools. 


Total No. of Pupils 
on the Rolls of the 
National Schools. 


Total Parliamentary 

Grant (including 

buildings). 


1840-1 
1860-1 
1889-90 


8,196,597 
5,798,967 
4,750,722 


1,978 
5.632 
8,196 


232,560 

804,000 

1,060,895 


£ 

50,000 

294,041 

953,675 



Section 7. — Training of Teachers. 

The training of Teachers for the National Schools was long the 
subject of angry controversy, and even still disputes are not alto- 
gether ended. The Commissioners opened their own College for 
Masters in 1833 on the mixed principle of Catholics and Protestants 
being educated and domiciled together in the same institution. At 
first it was impracticable to do more than merely give the outline 
of a training course to the Teachers, who were admitted for brief 
courses of from three to five months. In the year 1840, the Train- 
ing College for Mistresses was opened on the same principle. Each 
College was largely frequented by both Catholics and Protestants, 
until, in 1850, the Synod of Thurles denounced the system of mixed 
training, and demanded separate grants for Denominational Training 
Colleges. The numbers of the E. C. Students gradually diminished 
from being in a proportion of four to one to only about one half, and 
the training of the CathoHc Teachers became thereby a matter of 
serious concern. 

The Commissioners had already, so far back as 1834, tried the 
stipendiary monitorial system in Dublin — a time long antecedent to 



Commissioners of N. E. Reports, 1846, 1847, et seq. 



THE IRISH SYSTEM. 69 

the introduction of pupil-teachers in England by Sir Jas. K. Shuttle- 
worth — and in 1845 they extended it throughout the country. This 
system they gradually improved and enlarged until it became an 
important nursery for teacherships. Again, in 1856, they appointed 
a staff of "■ Organizers of Schools," consisting of twelve Masters and 
three Mistresses, all of them persons of the highest qualifications 
and wide experience, to travel about the country and show the 
Teachers how schools should be conducted on the most approved 
methods. Much was done by these means to maintam the standard 
of education amongst the Roman Catholic Teachers. 

In 1866, the Commissioners proposed measures to Mr. Chichester 
Fortescue, and in 1874 to Sir Michael Hicks Beach, when Chief 
Secretaries for Ireland, with the object of meeting the views of the 
Eoman Catholic Ecclesiastical Authorities ; but nothing definite 
was accomplished, owing to difficulties arising from the Protestant 
opposition. 

In 1881, however, the first step towards denominational training 
was taken in connexion with an application from the Protestant 
Authorities themselves — the Synod of the Church of Ireland — to 
have the Queen's Scholars of the Marlborough Street College, who 
were members of the Church of Ireland, domiciled in their own 
denominational institution in Kildare Place, whilst receiving their 
professional training and instruction in Marlborough Street. 

A very short experience of this experiment led, in 1883, to u 
proposal by Lord Spencer, then Lord Lieutenant, to extend the 
English System pure and simple to Ireland, — a proposal which, witli 
the sanction of the Government, was adopted by the Commissioners, 
mutatis mutandis, with a view of securing certain privileges not 
enjoyed under the system in England to which the Roman Catholic 
authorities attached' the greatest possible weight. Of these the main 
points were, provisions, {a) to allow of the continued award of the 
Teachers' Salaries on condition of their paying substitutes during 
their residence in the Training Colleges ; and {h) to enable each of 
the Irish Training Colleges to be managed by an individual, instead 
of by a Committee as is the requirement in England. 

The Commissioners' College still continues ; but inasmuch as it 
is wholly supported from the Public funds, and the Queen's Scholars 
are admitted free,* whilst the Denominational Colleges can only 
claim (as recommended by the Powis' Commission) 75 per cent., as 
in England, of their total certified expenditure, a not unreasonable 
cry has been raised by both Protestant and Catholic authorities 
either to level up or level down. 

There are three Denominational Training Colleges, two under the 
Roman Catholic, and one under the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, 
as the Managers, respectively, with a total number of 398 Queen's 
Scholars hi residence last year. In the Marlborough Street Mixed 
Training College the number was 199. Even with these Colleges, 
and their substantial muster of Students, it is evident that many 
years must pass before the great arrears in training represented by 

* The Powis Commissioners, however, recommended that a fixed payment from 
private sources sliould be required from each scholar. 



70 STATE EDUCATION. 

the 7,234 Teachers still untrained out of the total staff of 11,087 
will be cleared off. A proposal has been made to fall back upon the 
original plan of short courses of a few months for Teachers advanced 
in age who could not be expected to attend for a full period of one 
or two years. The proposal, which under all the circumstances 
appears to be excellent, awaits only, it is rumoured, the sanction of 
Government, as the Board of National Education a few years ago 
expressed approval of it. 



Section 8. — School Books : Model and Agricultural Schools. 

The review of the Irish system requires a reference to the mode 
of supply of books, &c., to the schools. The Commissioners, 
although having only a veto against the use of improper books, and 
having long ago thrown open their copyright, yet have a virtual 
monopoly of the school supply, owing to cheapness, good quality, 
and prompt delivery. The demands are, in the total, of course 
enormous, and the Commissioners have consequently opportunitj^ 
of obtaining the books and other requisites on the most favourable 
terms. Originally, suitable books were not in existence, and the 
Commissioners were accordingly under the necessity of themselves 
producing them. Their books soon gained such repute as to be in 
demand in Great Britain and in the Colonies, to which the Com- 
missioners sold annually large quantities. This practice awakened 
the hostility of the London publishers, who, in 1849 and subse- 
quently, appealed to Government to restrain the Commissioners. 
The Board's action was, however, defended by Lord John Eussell, 
then Prime Minister. But since that period matters have changed. 
The Commissioners' sales of their own publications, and of books 
produced by private authors for their purposes, have been restricted 
to the National Schools, and are sold (carriage free) at cost price. 
The receipts for their sales amount annuall}'^ to about £80,000, but 
this is an enormous saving on the ordinary shop prices, — a saving 
which goes to the benefit of the pupils, inasmuch as Teachers are 
strictly prohibited from making any advance on the prices as pub- 
lished in the Commissioners' School Lists. 

The Managers and Teachers aj)pear to be alive to the convenience 
of having a Common Standard Series in resj)ect to results examina- 
tions of Pupils, and annual examinations of Teachers and Monitors, 
as well as to the migrations of children from school to school, who, 
under the arrangement, are saved the cost of purchasing new books 
at every change. It seems, on the whole, a satisfactory thing to 
have a series generally accepted by the School Managers as safe and 
suitable. 

The net cost of this Book Sj^stem to the State is about j85,000 a 
year. 

We have thus surveyed the main lines of the history and organi- 
zation of National Education in Ireland. There are collateral lines 
within the scope of this wide subject that are of considerable interest, 
but too numerous to be even briefl}^ dealt with, and they do not 



THE IRISH SYSTEM. yi 

demand an}' special exposition. Such for instance is the history of 
the Model Schools, under the Board's own management, of which 
we may in passing observe, that having been built at heavy cost to 
the State, some £160,000, and been since maintained at consider- 
able charge on the annual Estimates, they are now in many 
instances forsaken by the Catholic Pupils, the R. C. Hierarchy 
being opposed to schools under exclusive State management. 

Lord Powis' Commission (1868 — 70) made what seems a reason- 
able recommendation, which, if adopted, would, no doubt, render 
these schools acceptable to Catholics as well as to all other denomi- 
nations : — 

" That all existing Provincial Model Schools which cannot be 
carried on by Local Committees as Elementary Schools on the 
present system, receiving only such suras as may be earned by 
their scholars on examination, or may be due to Teachers, may be 
granted on lease to anybody' applying for them as Training Schools, 
on easy terms, such as will provide for their maintenance and 
repair." 

As regards Agricultural Education in Ireland, we cannot do more, 
with our limited space, than state that the Commissioners have in 
active operation many schools in which practical Agriculture is 
taught, and others in which Dairying is taught, seven or eight 
hundred Dairymaids having within the last few years been trained 
in the industr3\ 

There are also 84,676 pupils regularly instructed in Agriculture 
from the Text Books, as part of the obligatory course for boys in 
all rm-al National Schools. 

Neither is it necessary to enter upon the examination of the 
means adopted from time to time b}' the Commissioners to further 
develop the industrial side of education, in the schools generally, 
for Bo3^s and Girls, the indications, as above, in respect to the 
existing provisions in the Commissioners' Ptesults Programmes 
being sufficient for our purpose. 



Section 9. — Compulsory School Attendance and Free Education. — 

Conclusiun. 

But there is a word to be said, before concluding, in reference to 
the twin subjects mooted for L'eland, — Compulsory Attendance, 
and Free Education. 

As to the former, we would observe that Ireland being almost 
wholly Agricultural, the children are unavoidably withdrawn from 
School for a considerable interval each year to help their parents in 
the fields, &c. Taking these intervals in connexion with periods 
of illness, wet weather, &c., we may fairly say that for about 
one-third of the year the children cannot attend School. Judging 
from the numbers on the rolls and the average daily attendance, 
we are disposed to conclude that there is at present an all-round 
attendance of about 140 full days in the year ; and this cannot be 
regarded as unsatisfactory. Until, therefore, some well-pronounced 



72 STATE EDUCATION. 

demand is heard, we can see no possible result to ensue from legis- 
lative interference in the matter of School attendance, except irrita- 
tion to parents, and additional unrest to the popular mind. 

For the case of factory children, there is adequate provision 
under the Factory Acts ; and the only other cases that invite atten- 
tion are : {a) Children of beggars and vagrants, perhaps not as yet 
adequately provided for under the Industrial Schools Acts and Poor 
Law Acts ; and (6) Youths who leave school before completing the 
full obligatory course prescribed by the Commissioners' Programme. 
For the latter class an extended application of the principle of the 
Factory Acts does seem desirable in the interests of the youths 
themselves, and of the country. 

It is likely that a movement to largely increase the number and 
efficiencj^ of Evening Schools — as Continuation Schools — would 
meet with general approval. But legislation in this direction must 
be accompanied by liberal provision towards the support of the 
Schools, which should not merely be organized to promote the 
literary education of their pupils, but also to give due opportunities 
for the development of the other side of education, namely the 
industrial. 

Secondly, as to Free Education, we would observe that if the 
State is to bear all the cost, its direct guarantees must be increased, 
and so far the independence of managerial authority in Ireland be 
prejudiced. Besides, the question does not seem to arise from any 
necessity ; for whereas in England half the cost of popular educa- 
tion is borne by the State, in Ireland the burden on the public 
funds is four-fifths. Practically, this means free education for the 
really poor, if we are to judge from the total pupils' fees for the 
year 1888 — 89, £108,284, which imposes on each pupil in average 
daily attendance the trifling charge of \d. per week. We have 
also seen that the determination of the rate of fee, or the question 
whether any fee shall be charged to an individual child, rests entirely 
with the Managers, who, being nearly all of them Clergymen resident 
in the localities, can well decide what is best in each case. 

In conclusion, we have to pay our tribute of acknowledgment to 
the course pursued by the National Education Commissioners and 
successive Governments in recent years, in harmony with the 
maxim of Burke — " Politic complaisance within the limits of 
Justice." We see an earnest endeavour to satisfy, without en- 
croaching on the reasonable claims of any, the sentiments of the 
great majority of those for whose use National Education is esta- 
blished in Ireland, in the bringing to a close the long and vexatious 
controversy on the question of denominational training, in remedying 
the grievance of wholly inadequate pay under which the Teachers 
of Convent Schools — amongst the best taught schools in the 
Country — had lain, notwithstanding the successive scales of 
improved salaries granted to ordinary School Teachers, in remov- 
ing the disabilitj' of members of religious orders to teach National 
Schools, and of Convents to have more than one school in con- 
nexion with the same Convent. Numerous other reforms might be 
mentioned that have been eftected in a corresponding direction. 



THE IRISH SYSTEM. 73 

Such a policy we desire heartily — even from the Protestant 
standpoint — to endorse, as tending to remove any sense of un- 
friendliness or of inequality of treatment felt by the Roman Catholic 
community. 

Whilst we find it hard now to point to any other substantial 
ground of dissatisfaction in regard to Irish National Education, we 
cannot withhold our opinion as to the reasonableness — and also 
the innocuousness — of the recommendation of the Powis Commis- 
sion (1868 — 70), regarding which the Roman Catholic Bishops have 
within the last few years shown much anxiety, and they complain 
that it should not yet have been carried into effect. That recom- 
mendation is, that when there have been in operation in any School 
district, or within any City or Town for three years, two or more 
Schools, of which one is under Protestant and one under Roman 
Catholic management, having an average attendance of not less 
than twenty-five children, the National Board may, upon applica- 
tion from the Patron or Manager, adopt any such School without 
requiring any regulation as to religion, except that of the Conscience 
Clause. 



PAKT V. 

THE ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL SYSTEMS 
OF ELEMENTAEY EDUCATION COMPAKED. 

The most important and interesting points of comparison between 
the school systems of this and of Continental countries relate to 
religious teaching ; school fees and State or municipal support ; 
compulsor}' school attendance ; ph5^sical exercises ; technical in- 
struction ; and the efficiency of teachers ; in all cases this refers to 
primary schools. 

The rationalistic tone, and the general scepticism of the learned 
classes in Germany, has led many Englishmen to conclude that the 
German schools are irreligious and that the teaching of religion 
forms no element in the national system of education. This is far 
from being the case, and there is perhaps no country where less 
friction is to be found between the different religious denominations 
and the State in this particular connexion. 

As a matter of fact religious teaching forms part of the national 
system,* and subject to conscience clauses provision is made by 
school managers, who usually represent the inhabitants of the parish 
or district in which the school is situated, for religious instruction 
in conformity with the vicAvs of the various denominations, Protes- 
tant, Catholic, &c. Religious toleration must be considered the 
normal feature in the German State system. 

Switzerland even in a greater degree than Germany possesses a 
mixed population so far as religion and language are concerned ; 
some cantons are almost exclusively Catholic, whilst in others 
Protestants largely predominate. In all, however, the children of 
each denomination are provided with religious instruction according 
to the wishes of their parents, sometimes during and at other times 
out of school hours, whilst a comparison of the reports from the 
different cantons shows that care is taken that there is no inter- 
ference with the liberty of conscience, and no enforced attendance at 
religious exercises. Those consist of hymns, prayers, and reading 
the Bible, generally without comment. 

There is perhaps no country in Europe where politics are so 
nmch affected by religious differences as in Belgium, and whilst 
until recently the system of State instruction favoured by the 
Liberals in power was purely secular (as indeed it is nominally at 

* In Austria and Prussia it stands first on the Time Tables. See Sonnenschein, 
Educational Codes of Foreign CountrieB, pp. 189 et seq. London : Swan Sonnenschein, 

1889. 



ENGLISH & FOREIGN SYSTEMS COMPARED. 75 

present), and religious instruction was given only out of school 
hours, it ma)^ be said that under Conservative rule the greatest 
facilities are now afforded by the subsidies of Communes to 
denominational education. In rural or sparsely populated districts 
a certain number of parents may claim to have a school established 
in which their religion is taught, but in the large centres of industry 
the schools continue to be secular ; and as already stated, each 
political party is intent upon fostering its own educational system, 
and great acrimony is thereby imparted to politics. The interference 
of the clergy in education is very active in Belgium. 

In Italy also the priesthood claims to direct the education of the 
masses, but the changes which have taken i)lace in the temporal 
rule have greatly restricted their influence. Speaking generally, 
religious instruction is only imparted once a week by laymen, and 
only to those children whose parents desire it. It does not form 
part of the national s^^stem, and, as in other Catholic countries, the 
clergy are bitterly opposed to education by the State as at present 
regulated. 

The laws concerning primary education in Sweden and Norway, 
which date back to 1842 and 1848 respectively for the towns, are 
A'^ery much alike in essential principles. Beligious instruction forms 
an integral part of the system in both countries. The objects of 
State education are " true Christian instruction and such knowledge 
and attainments as every member of the State ought to possess." 
The teaching of the primary school, which begins and ends each 
day with prayer and the singing of psalms, may be described as 
leading up to the " Confirmation," or the passing by the parish 
clergyman into the right to partake of the sacrament, and with it 
into responsible life. The clergyman plays a prominent part in the 
system, but religion is generally taught by the schoolmaster accord- 
ing to a recognised book of instructions. In addition to the religious 
instruction which they receive in school, all children above twelve 
are bound by law until two years after confirmation to appear in 
church at the public catechisms, which are conducted by the clergy- 
man, and are held several times during the year. From the lowest 
classes in the elementar}^ schools up to the highest several hours 
weekly are devoted to catechism, Bible history, &c., and the S3'stem 
is therefore unmistakably denominational. These remarks appl}' to 
those jirofessing the State religion, but there is provision for the 
establishment of schools for dissenters under the supervision of the 
School Boards (one of which is to be found in every ecclesiastical 
parish), which see that the Standards are complied with. 

In Denmark religious instruction is also part of the curriculum, 
but only for children whose parents are members of the State 
(Lutheran) Church. 

In France the struggle for priestly ascendancy has exercised greater 
influence over State instruction than in any other European country, 
and entirely to the disadvantage of the Clergy. The department of 
education professes complete neutrality towards the religious de- 
nominations, but it is by exclusion and not by the concurrent 
endowment of education. Hence the State system, which is purely 



ye STATE EDUCATION. 

secular, is usuall}'' designated " Godless education," and it is no 
doubt one of the results of the reaction against priestly interference 
in other than religious affairs. No priest as such is permitted to 
take any part in the management of the public Elementary Schools, 
in some of which the name of the Deity is never mentioned. In- 
struction in morals is, however, an important feature in the educa- 
tional course in all public Elementary Schools. 

The supervision of the State over elementary instruction in 
England is secular only, and the Department does not profess 
to extend any support to religious or denominational teaching. 
Certain hours are set apart for secular teaching, during which 
time no instruction is given in any religious subject or book, and 
those are the only school hours to which the State pa^^s attention. 
Moreover, where religion is taught, or where there are any kinds 
of religious exercises, children are not compelled to be present, and 
parents may ignore them without detriment to their children's 
secular education. 

In practice, however, a widespread religious S3^stem of instruction 
obtains in Board as well as in denominational Schools. One may 
go into a Church of England School and then into a Board School, 
and find in both the same book in use treating of the Old and New 
Testament ; the same h3anns ; the same Trinitarian form of prayer ; 
the only difference being the teaching of the Catechism in the Church 
School. It is true that in an infinite simally small number of schools 
religious teaching is excluded ; in a few others the Bible is read 
without comment ; but in by far the largest number, religion is 
taught either before or after lessons, or both. 

Besides the general religious teaching in Board and denomina- 
tional Schools, there is the strictly sectarian instruction in the 
latter. In the Church of England Schools the system is less uni- 
form and rigid than in those of the Roman Catholics, just as in 
the former the religious system generalh^ is less completely con- 
trolled by a central authority. In practice the Bishops and Clergy 
in both cases " set " the religious course. In a typical rural school 
of the Church of England, in Standards V., VL, and VIL, the 
following is the course of religious instruction for a certain year : 
" The Second Book of Samuel ; St. Mark's Gospel ; Morning 
Prayer to the end of the ' Te Deum ' ; the whole text of the Church 
Catechism, with explanation of the Lord's Prayer and the Desire ; 
four collects to be learned and understood ; four hymns." The 
Scriptures are read from 9 to 9.45 a.m. Pressure is frequently 
brought to bear upon children in order to " induce " them to attend 
religious exercises, where any such action is at all needed. It varies 
according to the character of the clergy or school managers in diffe- 
rent districts. In the school of which the religious course is given 
above, " objections of parents to religious instruction are fully re- 
spected." This is, however, far from being the case everywhere, 
and a volume might be written on the subject. In a typical Eoman 
Catholic School the following is the course of religious instruction : 
^^ Infants: Instruction on God; Our Lord; theB. Yirgin; St. Joseph; 
Guardian Angels ; Death ; Judgment ; Hell ; Heaven." Standards 



ENGLISH & FOREIGN SYSTEMS COMPARED. 77 

I. to V. : Catechism ; Prayers ; Instruction on Sin, &c. ; Sacre<l 
History. 

The reason for entering with some minuteness into the rehgious 
aspect of education is because it is the stumbling-block in the way 
of most of the changes that are proposed in the national system. 
How will it affect denominational teaching ? Who are the men that 
propose the change ? Have they any ulterior motive ? All other 
considerations would be more easily disposed of by the lay authori- 
ties, if the religious grounds of action or inaction were less promi- 
nent. In the present controversy on free or gratuitous education, for 
example, Catholics will tell you that they could not for a moment 
support any change in the system which would remove the manage- 
ment of their schools from the present superiors to the ratepayers. 
'' What is to prevent an Orangeman from being foisted upon our 
committee," they say, " who would at once begin to interfere with 
our religious instruction ? " And Churchmen in like manner fear 
the intrusion of dissenters and even of secularists. 

Turning to the question of compulsion, it may be stated that in 
Germany the attendance is compulsory, and neglect may even be 
punished by fine or imprisonment in most States ; but this is rarely 
needed, as the desire for education is universal. Like many other 
*' paternal" customs in Germany, themethodofenforcingattendanceat 
school is sometimes very unceremonious, and a writer on the German 
system of education tells us that in some places " the school autho- 
rities are empowered to send a policeman to the home of the child 
and have him taken to school by the collar." This method, he says, 
is very salutary, as it creates a great sensation in the school, and is 
regarded as a serious disgrace.* From statistics collected by the 
same writer the necessity for imprisoning parents is diminishing, for 
whilst in the year 1881 in Konigsberg 173 persons were fined and 
15 committed to prison, the numbers in 1885 had fallen to 141 fined 
and 2 imprisoned. In Sweden and Norway the attendance of chil- 
dren is compulsory from seven or nine, as the School Board may 
decide, up to *' confirmation," or until the final standard is passed. 
The means of compulsion are reminders, fines, and in case of gross 
neglect on the part of the parents, removal of a child from its home 
to a home approved by the Board, or in extreme cases to a reforma- 
tory. The Boards fix the minimum attendances, both as to days 
per week and school hours. In many large sparsely-peopled parishes 
the schools are held in one place after another, so as to make attend- 
ance possible ; and where no school-house exists ratepaj'ers have to 
provide accommodation in their houses. In fact the difficulties 
which impede education, in Norway especially, greatly resemble 
those which attend religious ministrations. Any one who has sailed 
along the coast of Norway knows how the clergyman has to travel 
from one place to another at intervals to administer the rites of 
matrimony, baptism, confirmation, «fec.j and how irregular are the 
services of religion over which he is able to preside. This naturally 

* Perry. Reports on German Elementary Schools, p. 12, where cases are riyen 
(Rivingtons, 18870 



78 STATE EDUCATION. 

renders the necessity for religious instruction by laymen exception- 
ally requisite. In France, Switzerland, and Italy, attendance is also 
obligatory, but in the last-named country there is not sufficient 
school accommodation, and so far as we are aware the law is nowhere 
enforced. In Belgium attendance is not compulsory, and education 
is by no means universal : uninstructed children follow handicrafts 
in considerable numbers. In Great Britain a remarkable system 
prevails, and its most conspicuous defects are prominent in our large 
towns. All children between five and thirteen ought by law to 
attend school ; if the parents are too poor to pay school fees they 
may apply to the guardians of the poor, whose duty it is, after 
inquiry, to supply the necessary means. In some places the parents 
have to walk long distances to the office of the overseers, and cases 
are known where the relieving officer treats them as paupers, and 
even uses language of a kind to deter sensitive parents from making 
the application. A respectable parent who cannot pay the school 
fees is liable to fine and imprisonment, and some are so imprisoned 
for a debt of a few pence, whilst unscrupulous traders who succeed 
in obtaining credit for thousands of pounds, and fail to meet their 
obligations, may seek relief in the Insolvency Court. 

Notwithstanding compulsor}^ legislation, and the severe penalties 
which are attached to it, the streets of our large towns swarm with 
children of school age selling matches, newspapers, &c. ; and in 
spite of the Act recently passed for the protection of young children, 
many are sent out in their earliest infancy to beg, and sometimes, 
in order to excite sympathy, almost every rag of clothing is withheld 
from them, even in the severest weather. These are chiefly the oft"- 
spring of dissolute parents or of the criminal classes, who would 
wiUingly part with their children and hand them over to the State 
for education and maintenance if it did not pay them better to retain 
their services in the infamous manner just described. It is this 
state of things that the ragged and industrial school system is 
intended to obviate, but with which it fails to cope efiectively. 

In France, Switzerland, and Ital}^, primary instruction is quite 
gratuitous ; in Germany (as in England) school fees are allowed to 
be charged where the parents can afford to pay them, but exemptions 
are easily obtained when they are unable to do so : in all cases the 
fees are nominal, and in most of the large cities and towns elementary 
education is gratuitous to all. In Belgium the practice varies in 
different communes, but in every case declared poverty suffices to 
secure gratuitous instruction. 

In Sweden and Norway, all State instruction, both in primary 
and secondary schools, is gratuitous, and parents whose circum- 
stances are such as not to admit of their sending their children to 
school without injury, can obtain a grant from the poor-rates as a 
compensation for the loss of their services. 

In Denmark, where school attendance is compulsory up to the 
fourteenth year, it is gratuitous in the country schools, and there 
is a number of free schools in Copenhagen also, but there the 
majority of poor parents take a pride in sending their children to 
the so-called " pay-schools," where the fees are one krone (about 



ENGLISH & FOREIGN SYSTEMS COMPARED. 79 

Is, 2(Z.) per month, and there are also State-schools called citizen- 
schools where the fees are 3 to 5 kroner monthly. In Denmark, 
although parents neglecting the education of their children are 
liable to fines, they would as soon think of starving them as of 
keeping them away from school. 

In Scotland primary instruction has recently become gratuitous in 
the lower standards, a portion of the grant from the State in aid of 
local taxation having been appropriated to that object. In England 
at the time of writing these lines an active agitation is proceeding to 
secure a similar privilege for children in our primary schools, and 
some concession may be expected to be made during one of the 
coming sessions of this Parliament. Until recently disinterested 
and liberal-minded educationists, such as the late Mr. Matthev/ 
Arnold, disapproved of gratuitous education being given, excepting 
in cases of extreme poverty. It was considered by many conscientious 
men that the State is no more called upon to give instruction free 
than to give bread or clothing gratis, and that to do so would 
diminish the sense of responsibility in i:)arents. At present most of 
the members of the various denominations are agreed that gratuitous 
primary instruction (or " Free Schools " as they are called) is desir- 
able, but the chief difficulties in the way of its accomplishment are, 
1, the widespread feeling that where the State provides the funds 
there should be popular local control ; and 2, that difficulties would 
arise in the method of appropriation. As it has been already stated 
in speaking of religious instruction, the first is the real difficulty. 
The State already makes grants in aid to denominational schools, 
without attempting to interfere with religious teaching, and if it be 
deemed necessary that local control should be extended along with 
increased State aid, that should be confined to the expenditure of 
public money for secular teaching, and there would not be much 
difficulty in securing the legitimate appropriation of State grants. 

As to the question of apportionment, that is a matter of detail 
which would not stand in the way of the settlement of the question 
if the religious difficulty could be overcome. The object of these 
remarks is not to decide a controversy, but simply to state facts and 
to compare systems, and the fact that gratuitous education already 
exists in some countries where religious feelings and prejudices are 
much more pronounced than in England speaks for itself. 

One of the chief defects in English primary instruction is the 
sdniost entire absence of physical training, to which, however, the 
Board Schools in Manchester, and some of those in other large 
towns, are an exception. In Germany, France, and Switzerland, 
gymnastics and drill are conspicuous features in the training of 
children. No doubt this arises largely from the necessity for keep- 
ing up a constant supply of soldiers. In Belgium also great atten- 
tion is paid to physical exercises. 

That physical training is neglected in Great Britain and the 
United States is no doubt due mainly to their not being military 
nations, but all the same it is a great disadvantage in a pacific sense, 
for the constant strain upon the minds of children, and the increas- 
ing area of instruction, renders a regular S3'stem of pln'sical training 



So STATE EDUCATION. 

an urgent necessit3\ In a very large proportion of the elementary 
schools there is absolutely no physical exercise besides the few 
minutes of play in the playground, snatched from or during the 
regular course of instruction. In many there is musical drill for 
the infants onl}^ ; whilst in some of the Board Schools an hour per 
week is devoted to drill and exercise with small wooden or iron 
dumb-bells or clubs ; but it must be apparent to the most superficial 
observer that sooner or later very evil results must follow from the 
present system of constant mental exertion without corresponding 
physical exercise for young and growing frames. 

In France manual technical instruction is given in primar}"- 
schools. Such instruction consists of drawing, cutting objects in 
cardboard, modelling, tool-making, wood-carving, &c., not only in 
day but in evening schools, and the various occupations are adapted 
to the different grades. German}^ is provided with trade schools, 
and although workshops are not yet introduced into primary 
schools, drawing is taught, and there are apprenticeship schools in 
several German States. The same remarks apply to Switzerland 
and Belgium. 

There has long been an outcry in this country against the educa- 
tional authorities for neglecting to foster what has been called 
" Technical Education," but what was really intended to mean 
trade instruction, in which Continental nations are said to have left 
us in the background, and until the last session of Parliament no 
measure was passed for giving technical instruction in primary 
schools. Drawing has, however, long been taught in such schools, 
and although the system of science instruction, embracing theoretical 
and even practical training in many trades and professions, has not 
been associated with the curriculum of the primary schools, it has 
been provided to an extent far bej^ond anything that exists else- 
where for young persons and adults ; and when, some years since, 
one of the writers of this article visited the United States, he 
was asked to read a paper, before the American Association for the 
Promotion of Science, on the " South Kensington System," as it 
was called, for the information of those who were desirous of foster- 
ing scientific education in America. Though an Act was passed for 
Scotland in the present year, even now technical instruction can 
only be given there in elementary schools to children who have 
passed the Fifth Standard. 

It may be said in general terms that in Germany primary educa- 
tion is admirably conducted, bears excellent results, and is imparted 
by teachers who are thoroughly qualified for their duties. There 
are State normal schools, but they are only free to poor students ; 
there are no pupil teachers ; and generally speaking qualified teachers 
are badly remunerated. In France the same may be said of primary 
education as in Germany : there are many normal (State) schools in 
which instruction is gratuitous and of a high order ; but as in Ger- 
many, teachers are in general badly paid. Even in Paris, where the 
payment has been nearly doubled, it is still much below our scale. 
Almost identical remarks apply to Switzerland, where the head 
schoolmasters take part in the public inspection of schools, sitting 



ENGLISH & FOREIGN SYSTEMS COMPARED, 8i 

at the same tables with the Government or Cantonal Board. In 
Belgium there are many normal schools supported by the State, as 
also in Italy, where training of teachers is gratuitous ; and the same 
remark applies to Sweden and Norway, where the expenses of all 
the normal schools are defrayed by the State. In this country the 
training schools have been founded and are managed by the various 
denominations, and they are liberally aided by the State. Accord- 
ing to reports of the Education Department contributed by H. E. 
Oakley, Esq., and Dr. J. G. Pitch,* these institutions are fairly well 
conducted, and as far as they meet the requirements of the country 
little fault is to be found with them ; but the returns for 1888 show 
that there are only forty-four such institutions in England and 
Wales, giving instruction to 3,277 students, whilst the number 
applying for admission far exceeds the annual vacancies. It is said 
that the supply of certificated teachers is equal to the demand owing 
to the employment of pupil teachers, a system which has either 
never existed or has ceased to exist in other countries. 

In this hasty and necessaril}" superficial sketch we have not 
attempted to adduce all the evidence that is available to substantiate 
the opinions and support the conclusions at which we have arrived 
through a somewhat intimate acquaintance with primary education 
both at home and abroad ; indeed we presume that some of the 
subjects which have been dismissed by us with a few passing words 
of comment will be treated in detail by writers who have made them 
a special stud}'. We believe, however, that we shall have the con- 
currence of most persons who understand the question when we say 
that owing to two main causes, first, the removal of children from 
school at an immature age, and secondly, the extensive employment 
of pupil teachers and others inefficiently trained, elementary educa- 
tion has not reached the same high level in England as it has 
attained in several other European States. 

* Eyre and Spottiswoode. •■ Training Colleges." 1880. 



VOL. I. 



PART YI. 

WESTERN STATE EDUCATION. 



THE UNITED STATES' AND ENGLISH SYSTEMS 

COMPARED. 

1. Primary and Gi^ammar Schools. 

It is not an easy matter to grasp the philosophy of a foreign 
educational system. Education is not an art, like the art of swim- 
ming for instance, where, though the methods of teaching and 
practice may vary considerably, yet the purpose which the art seeks 
to achieve, viz., how to propel the body along the surface of water 
without getting the head underneath, is, all the world over, the same. 
On the contrary, the purpose of a national system of education will 
differ very materiall}^ in different countries. Education is the 
organized and scientific initiation of the young into the duties of 
civilised life. Each different ideal of civilisation will, therefore, 
produce its own peculiar ideal of education. 

Now there are undoubtedly strong differences between American 
and English ideals. Let us cite one conspicuous instance of such 
difference. The American people (by which here and elsewhere is 
meant the people of the United States) have always been their own 
law-makers, and so, from the earliest period of their national his- 
tory, they have placed in the forefront, as their object in founding a 
public system of education, that of training up law-making, as well 
as law-abiding, citizens. But this object was certainly not the 
guiding principle of those who initiated and developed popular 
education in England. The voluntary and denominational move- 
ment of the early part of this century had confessedly no other 
than religious and philanthropic aims on behalf of the poorer 
classes ; and as time went on it received recognition and support 
from the State almost entirely on these grounds. And, although 
our first really national movement on behalf of education, in the 
year 1870, received a great impulse from the middle and upper-class 
consciousness of the danger of leaving " our masters " in ignorance 
of their letters, yet the arrest of that movement at its present in- 
complete stage shows that we still realise only imperfectly that other 
ideal of education as a course of training for the law-makers of 
England. The English ideal in the past has not been that of an 



WESTERN STATE EDUCATION. 83 

American State which sets up as a fundamental axiom : — '* Since 
the efficient government of the State requires the harmonious co- 
operation of the masses, it is a condition for the welfare of the State 
to provide schools in which the children of the people grow up 
together without class or sect distinction, so that a more homo- 
geneous population may make the action of the Government har- 
monious and energetic." * 

Again, neither is it an eas}'' matter to master the details of 
a foreign educational S3^stem. This is especially true of the 
" American Common School system." And the reason is not far to 
seek — in one sense, there is no American Common School system. 
So difficult is it for an Englishman, with his Education Department 
administering the Education iVcts, issuing its annual code of 
regulations, and thus virtually determining for all public ele- 
mentar}'- schools the duties of managers, the qualifications of 
teachers, and the course of instruction, to realise " local option " as 
the fundamental principle of a public school system, that it becomes 
necessary to emphasise this fact at starting. There is no American 
Education Department, no American Minister of Education. The 
Commissioner of Education at the head of the United States 
Bureau of Education at Washington is rather a Registrar- General 
for education than a Minister of State — a sort of statistical head 
centre who has no more control over educational bodies than the 
Registrar- General in England has over the births, deaths, and mar- 
riages of human bodies which he records and tabulates. In fact 
the functions of the United States Government in the matter of 
educational legislation are of the narrowest kind. Apart from the 
scientific militar}'- training of the Army and Navy, which is entirely 
in its hands, it limits itself to making endowments in the shape of 
land-gi*ants to the several States for the pui-poses of common school 
education or for the promotion of scientific agriculture and the 
mechanical arts. It has also furnished endowments for the support 
of Universities in all new States formed since 1787. The duty and 
responsibility of making provision for the education of its population 
rests with the several States individually ; and each State has, of 
its own proper motion, though some in the South only tardily, come 
to recognise this duty by establishing a common school system in 
its midst. And this system diff'ers, or may differ, fi-om the cor- 
responding system of other States. 

First, this individuality is shown in the different modes of elec- 
tion, the widely varied composition and functions of the several 
State Boards of Education. In some States the Boards are com- 
posed mostly of professional teachers, in others, chiefly of State 
officers. Then, in some States, the State Superintendent {i.e., 
Inspector, though not with analogous functions to Her Majesty's 
Inspectors of Schools) is elected directly by the people, in others by 
the Governor, in others, again, by the Legislature, in others by the 
State Board of Education itself; and his duties, powers, and 
prerogatives are equally diverse. 

* National Council of Education, Procee.lings, 1887. 
G 2 



84 STATE EDUCATION. 

Again, some States enforce compulsory school attendance, others 
do not ; and Avhere compulsion is carried out, the " b^^e-laws " (as 
we should call them) regulating the ages between which they are 
enforced, the minimum number of attendances required, the penalties 
for their breach, and the conditions of exemption, vary with each 
State. 

The principle of local self-government which underlies the social 
and political constitution of the United States asserts itself still 
further by each State assigning to the municipalities of cities and 
townships within its borders the power to elect their own School 
Committees or School Boards, only retaining the right of prescribing 
their organization, officers, and general powers. These City Boards 
have also been organized on every variety of plan. The New York 
Board is elected by the Mayor. In Philadelphia the Board is 
elected by the Judges, who are themselves elected by popular vote, 
and the Board is associated in its task of school management with 
certain " school directors," who are elected by the people, three for 
each ward in the city. In Cincinnati the Board is elected partly by 
the people in wards and partl}^ on a "general ticket; " and so on. 
These City School Boards have power (subject to the State educa- 
tional laws) to constitute school districts, elect school officers, collect 
taxes for school purposes, and arrange for the examination, appoint- 
ment and rate of pay of teachers, to build schools, arrange courses 
of stud}^, prescribe the regulations for the government of the schools, 
and to administer these schools. Hence there are further oppor- 
tunities for diversity in educational machinery and policy owing to 
the individual local circumstances, the ever-varying political and 
social temper of each city and town. And it should further be 
borne in mind that America is far less homogeneous in itself 
than England. Over that wide area, varieties of race and tradition, 
of climate and environment, have impressed even upon individual 
cities, marked divergencies from a uniform ethical, social and poli- 
tical standard. Boston is not as New Orleans, nor Richmond as 
San Francisco. 

But, amidst all this diversity'- of ideal and theory, of detail and 
practice, there is an underlying unity, an undercurrent of common 
sentiment in educational matters which is strong enough to set the 
course of the stream very much in the same direction all over the 
United States, in obedience to the " genius " of their national 
institutions. The Common School is universal; it is open to all 
classes ; it is free ; and it is either unsectarian or secular, i.e., 
neutral, in religious matters. Let us glance at these points in 
order. '' 

First, tlie Common School is to he found everywhere, in the 
remotest farming town where scarcel}^ 20 children of school age 
can be counted within a radius of two or three miles, no less than 
in the large cities.* And every Common School is under the 



* In America, a town (old English toivnship') corresponds to the English village or 
group of Tillages forming a rnral area ; and a city, to the English municipal town, 
forming an tirhan area. 



WESTERN STATE EDUCATION. 85 

control and management of a local board, variously designated in 
different parts of the United States, but everywhere practically what, 
from the point of view of local repycsentatAve control, we in England 
would call a School Board. The School Board is, therefore, universal. 
Its foundation rests on the idea that every locality is competent to 
manage its own educational affairs. But this only within limits. 
Each State has its own State Law, which is administered by the 
State Board of Education. The State lays down by law that 
Common Schools of a certain grade and range of study shall exist 
within a given area, that the schools shall be ope2i for a minimum 
number of da3's, and (where it has adopted the principle of com- 
pulsion) fixes the requirements as to school attendance, and the 
penalties for truanc}^ The function of the State Board of Educa- 
tion is to obtain and publish the returns required by law from the 
School Boards, and to apportion the State Fund (where such exists) 
arising from grants of land, bequests or endowments. But the 
State Board has no leijal control over the jiimiagemeiit of the schools,^' 
and can exercise no authority with reference to local taxation, the 
erection of school buildings, the appointment of teachers, or the 
organization, discipline and course of study in the schools. These 
matters are entirely in the hands of the local School Boards. The 
State Board does, howevei', exercise considerable influence in the 
form of " moral suasion " be3^ond the limits of its legal powers, by 
the acquiescence and good-will of the School Boards. It exercises 
this function more especially among the rural School Boards. 
Practically it leaves the city School Boards alone in the manage- 
ment of their schools ; for experience has shown that the public 
spirit of a city community is an ample guarantee, in spite of 
occasional abuse of the position by struggling politicians, for the 
presence of a sufficient number of competent administrators upon 
the School Board, and for the efficiency, energy, and enterprise of 
its working. 

In the rural parts of the States, however, it is frequently far 
otherwise. The only available members of the Board are farmers ; 
they live two or three miles from each other, and from the school ; 
they do not profess to be qualified for the work, and only serve on 
the School Board because " somebody must." A School Board so 
composed will not only frankly recognise its inefficiency, but will 
court the assistance and guidance which the State Board of Educa- 
tion is prepared most freely to render. For the discharge of these 
functions towards the rural Board the State Board employs 
Superintendents or Agents whose duty it is to collect and diffuse 
information as to the condition of the schools, to inspect and 
examine when invited, to point out weaknesses, and to make 
suggestions for improvement. But beyond this they are careful 
not to go. 

Now contrast this with the English system ; and, for this purpose, 
for " State Law " read "Education Acts of Parliament," for " State 
Board of Education" read "Education Department," and for 
" State Fund " read " Parliamentary Grant." Further, for " School 
Board," we must read " Managers of a Public Elementary School," 



86 STATE EDUCATION. 

for the English law recognizes equally as " Managers " either 
School Boards, or a body (of three persons at least), representing a 
voluntary or denominational agency. The analogy thus suggested 
between the English and American systems holds good very fairly, 
but the following points of differentiation will at once strike the 
observer. In both countries, the education of the people is regulated 
by a central law. But the strength of a law depends upon the 
degree to which it can be enforced, and with regard to education, 
the leverage which in both countries makes for the enforcement of the 
law is mainly the money grant which the administrators have at 
their disposal. That money is the " State Fund " in one case, and 
the " Parliamentary Grant " in the other. Now, in America, the 
State Fund even at its largest (as, probably, in Massachusetts) bears 
a very much smaller proportion to the sum raised by local taxation, 
than the Parliamentary Grant in England does to the sum raised 
locally either by rates and fees, or by subscriptions and fees. Conse- 
quently on this ground the power of the Education Department over 
Public Elementary Schools in England is much greater than the 
power of the State Boards of Education over the Common Schools 
in America. But, further, the Education Law in England is wider 
and more far-reaching. By " the Code," which is strictly an 
annual appendix to the Education Acts, the Education Department 
has a very direct control over the buildings, the teachers employed, 
and over the organization and internal management of a public 
elementary school ; it appoints inspectors, who can claim admittance 
at any time into a school for a close examination and inspection of 
the school in all these particulars, and the amount of Parliamentary 
Grant, even to the extent of total withdrawal, is subject to a minute 
assessment of the merits of the school as to its condition, teaching- 
staff, and educational results. 

It is admitted, by thoughtful Americans, that their policy (as 
regards the rural Boards) has its elements of weakness as well as of 
strength: — "It may allow to be left for a long time untouched 
many errors and defects in the management of the schools which 
might at once be removed if the State were to lay its hand directly 
upon them ; and it may seem thus to fail, and may perhaps really 
fail, in bringing the schools with sufficient promptness to the best 
attainable results. But, on the other side, in its reliance upon the 
intelligence and carefulness of the people themselves in their several 
localities, and through the necessity of working only through such 
agencies, it may secure, in a more permanent form, the gains that 
are made."* 

May not Englishmen admit that our policy also has its elements 
of weakness as well as of strength ; that too much centralization 
and too little trust in local interest in education is a characteristic 
note of our system, just as too little of the former and too much of 
the latter is of theirs ? 

Secondly, the Common School is open to all classes, rich and poor, 
of every station or social rank. The ** legal school age " {i.e. the 

* Eeport of Massachusetts Board of Education, 1880-1. 



WESTERN STATE EDUCATION. ^7 

range of ages between which a chihl or young person can legally 
claim to be educated at a Common Scliool) is determined in each 
State by its State Law, and is accepted, with only a slight modifica- 
tion here and there, by the Cities or Towns which are entitled to 
have their own School system. The usual range of school age is 
from five or six to twenty or twenty-one. It is the function, then, of 
the Common School system to supply any demand for education 
which can reasonably be made on behalf of young persons between 
tliese ages. Obviously, therefore, there can be no such limitation in 
the American S3'stem to merely elementary education as pertains 
in England, where Parliament has limited State recognition to 
Elementary schools which are provided for the child-popula- 
tion between three and thirteen years of age, and practically turn 
the scholars out of school when they have passed the highest 
" standard" of an elementar}^ course of instruction set forth by the 
" Code." 

In America, then, every State requires by law that there shall be, 
first, a sufficient number of schools for the instruction of every child 
who may legally attend school in orthography, reading, writing, 
English grammar, geograph}^, arithmetic, drawing, tlie history of 
the United States, the constitution of its own State, and of its own 
city or town, and in good morals. Higher subjects are required to 
be taught where expedient. These schools are, in working, univer- 
sally divided into two departments, called Primary and Grammar 
schools ; but this division has no foundation in tbe nature of things, 
but is made purely as a matter of convenience. The Primary School 
receives children from the youngest school-age up to about ten or 
eleven ; and they then pass on to the Grammar School, there to 
complete what practically is the elementary course. The arrange- 
ment has the advantage of enabling small Primary Schools to be 
placed nearer the homes of the younger children, who are then trans- 
ferred, when able to walk longer distances, to a large and well-grounded 
Grammar School, which is thus fed by a group of Primary Schools. 
But, secondly, the State law requires that there shall be maintained 
in every town of so many hundred (500 in Massachusetts) families, 
in addition, a high school, and, sometimes, makes further provision, 
as in Massachusetts, that every town of 4000 inhabitants must widen 
its high school curriculum by the introduction of such additional 
subjects as Greek, French, Astronomy, Moral Science and Political 
Economy, 

There are, or were until very recentl}^, no schools, in the Common 
Scliool S3'stem, corresi^onding to our English Infants Schools, 
receiving children at three (or even under three) years of age up to 
about seven. Within the last few 3'ears, however, as a result of a 
number of experiments by private persons to adapt the Kinder- 
garten or Froebellian system to American conditions — notably at St. 
Louis — Schools on the Kindergarten model (called Sub-Primary) 
have been established as part of the Public School system. 
Following the lead of St. Louis, Milwaukie and Philadelphia have 
Sub-Primary Schools firmly established. Boston has lately joined 
this goodly company, and has taken over the fourteen Kindergarten 



88 STATE EDUCATION. 

schools in that City, previously supported by private benevolence ; 
and other cities are rapidly taking steps in the same direction.* 

Before passing on to the work of the High Schools, a few 
criticisms on the work of the American Primarj'^ and Grammar 
Schools, based on the writer's own observation and examination, 
ma}^ serve as an estimate of the comparative efficiencj^ of American 
and English public Elementar}-^ Schools, to be taken for what it is 
worth. The average age of children in the lowest grade (or class) on 
admission in American city schools is nearer seven than six, and, as 
a consequence of the child's first introduction to mental training at 
an age nearly two years greater than the corresponding age in 
England, where Infant Schools are universal, it follows that the 
average age of children doing work corresponding to an}^ given 
English Code Standard is greater in America than in England. 
This disparity seems to hold good all through school life, though in 
diminishing degree, that is, American children never entirely make 
up for the time lost through the lack of Infant Schools, so as to be 
as 3'oung in an}'^ "Standard" as English children. As no payments to 
the teachers, either from the State Fund or the local taxes depend 
upon the " results " of examinations, the scholars are not driven at 
so great a pace. The pace might be somewhat increased, without 
physical strain. There seems to be a little too much " marking 
time." Promotion from stage to stage takes place at long intervals 
(sometimes as much as a year, as in England), and follows rigid 
rules. Consequently, as in England, promotion is not rapid enough 
for the more intelligent scholars. Those who complete the course, 
going right through to the highest class of the Grammar School, at 
fourteen or fifteen years of age, are comparatively few, more girls 
than bo3^s, in the proportion sometimes as high as two to one ; and 
these go through a " review" of the work of past years, and may be 
said to leave school with a thoroughly sound practical education. 
Ijarge numbers, however, especially in those States which have no com- 
pulsory law {i.e., in about half of the States), have left school by eleven, 
indifi'erently equipped, and these must soon lose most of what the}' 
have acquired. Those who leave between eleven and thirteen do not 
seem to have had the opportunity of being so well equipped with an 
Elementary Education as corresponding English children. Doubt- 
less, this defect in their school training is largel}^ made up for, after- 
wards, by greater adroitness and adaptability — the result partly of 
inherited faculty, and partly also of the wider education in the ways 
of the world, acquired during those early years up to seven, which are 
spent by English children in the narrower communit}'' of the Infant 
School. 



2. High Schools. 

In passing from the Grammar School to the High School, which 
is equally open to him under every State Common School System, 
the scholar is being lifted, by the enlightened j)rovision of the com- 

* Eeport of Commissioner of Education, 1887-8, p. 821. 



WESTERN STATE EDUCATION. 89 

munity, out of the region of elementaiy, into that of secondary, 
education. Herein America is in marked contrast with England. 
In England the provision for Secondary Education follows the track 
of the old endowments of the Tudors and Stuarts, and is almost 
wholly wanting outside of that track. But the distribution of these 
endowments is in no wa}' based on the needs of modern England, 
so that a village like Ewelme in Oxfordshire has far more than it 
can profitably use ; a populous town like Sheffield, far less. In 
many small country towns, endowed Secondary Schools are to be 
found which neither Acts of Parliament, Royal Commissions, nor 
new Schemes of government have been able to galvanize into life. 
Vested interests have been too powerful for the masterly Recommenda- 
tions of the Schools Inquiry Commissioners of 1868, which proposed 
to divide the countr}- into educational districts, and to co-ordinate the 
endowments within each area by such redistribution as would meet 
the latter-day wants of the community. Though the composition 
and constitution of governing bodies have been largely, and, in 
many cases, beneficiall}^ re-modelled, it has not always been possible, 
even for Parliamentary Commissioners, to eliminate elements antago- 
nistic to reform. Hence, even the funds derivable from endowments, 
scanty as they are for the needs of the England of to-day, are far 
from being appropriated to the best advantage ; and the late Mr. 
Matthew Arnold, preaching the doctrine of " organize your Second- 
ary Education " incessantly for five-and-twenty years, felt himself 
to be onl}' a vox clamantis in descrto, and the disregard of his voice 
to be a terrible " blow for the declining age of a sincere but 
ineftectual Liberal." * 

But America knows nothing of these characteristic English diffi- 
culties. There, whatever Secondary Education exists (except that 
given b}^ a few private schools and academies in the wealthier cities) 
is provided as part of the Public School System by the local School 
Board, and is supported out of the taxes annually raised from the 
whole community for the purposes of Education. This is, indeed, 
the most distinctive feature of each State Common School system. 
The facilities for higher education are not capriciousl}^ distributed, 
by the chances of ancient or modern bount}^ but are to be found in 
the midst of all fairly populous cities and towns in the State. 

But though the cause of higher education escapes our difficulties, 
it must not be supposed that it has not difficulties of its own. It is 
obviously essential to the proper management of any kind of higher 
education that the managers should be socially in sympathy with 
those for whom they are providing the education, that they should 
have an adequate conception of the value to the many of tlie higher 
mental training for the few, and be conscious of aims based on broad 
views of the fruitfulness of intellectual life in a nation. Now, un- 
happily, there comes across the usually healthy political life of an Ameri- 
can city a sick season — a time when the unscruj^ulous, the mercenar}^ 
the self-seeking, to whom " everj'thing human and divine has its 

* See Matthew Arnold's article " Forro unum est necessarium," Fortniglitly 
Review, November, 1878. 



90 STATE EDUCATION. 

price," lias full sway; it is then that the better elements either retire 
from public life in disgust at the treatment to which they are sub- 
jected, and in despair at theirpowerlessness to stem the tide of deterio- 
ration that has set in, or are elbowed out of the honourable posts 
they occupied by the mean devices of those who use these posts for 
their own dishonourable ends. Sad times these for higher educa- 
tion : for the selfishness of the demagogue immediately suggests to 
the burdened taxpayer, "Why should you be called upon in your 
poverty to pay for the Latin and Greek and other accomplishments 
which are of no use to your children, and which ought to be provided 
for the rich man's children at his own expense ? " Most cities have 
had their days of re-action, when it has been a severe struggle to 
maintain a proper standard of secondary instruction in face of an 
outcry like this. But the struggle generally ends in the triumph of 
the better elements; and many of the State legislatures have checked 
the recurrence of such untoward times for higher education by 
changes in the mode of election and constitution of School Boards, 
which have made them less directly dependent on popular whim and 
less capable of manipulation by political machinists. " In this direc- 
tion, however, much remains to be desired."* 

The English Endowed or Public School and the American High 
School being thus the outcome of such difierent circumstances as 
have been described, present numerous and marked points of con- 
trast. An English Endowed School would admit scholars of all 
ages, from eight or nine years old and upwards ; its standard of 
attainment qualifying for admission would vary with the age of the 
candidate ; and each pupil, on being admitted, would be placed in 
that class in the school where the attainments were as nearly as 
possible similar to his own. The batch of admissions at a particular 
entrance examination, though the gi'eater proportion would be entered 
in the lowest class of the school, would be distributed over a wide 
range of classes. But in America the almost universal rule is to 
make the condition of admission to a High School either^ that the 
candidate shall have passed at least the previous year in some upper 
elementary school (i.e.. Grammar School, so called), and have 
graduated, i.e., satisfactorily completed the course of instruction 
there, or, shall show in an examination attainments equivalent to 
such graduation. Consequently, all the pupils entering a High 
School at a given time are as nearly as possible of the same age and 
attainments. Having previously reached the first grade (or class) of 
an American Grammar School, they will average fourteen or fifteen 
years of age ; and will have all reached a certain standard in the 
subjects named above (p. 87) as forming the course of instruction 
in Grammar Schools. Consequently, though of such an advanced 
age, they will, as a rule, have studied no foreign language whatever, 
ancient or modern. f 

* City School Systems, by Dr. John D, Philbrick, Circular of the Bureau of Educa- 
tion, 1885. 

I Except, possibly, German, if they should happen either to be of German parentage, 
or of American parentage living in cities with a large German population, when, as is 
the case with Welsh children in a public elementary school in Wales, they will have 
received a bilingual training (English and Welsh) in the elementary school itself. 



WESTERN STATE EDUCATION. 91 

The High Sc]iool course (in a city) usually extends over four 
years, but sometimes, as in the newer cities of the West, only three 
years. But the average length of stay in the school is only a little 
over two years, and in the case of boys, even less than that ; * while 
the number of those who complete the covu'se only ranges from 
one-third to as low as one-sixth of the number admitted to the 
school. It follows that a High School accommodating 300 scholars 
will admit nearly 150 from the various Grammar Schools at one 
annual or two semi-annual admissions. The scholars enter the 
same class and travel more or less ^9«ri passu through the school. 
This class will be divided into sections, and a large amount of 
choice will be allowed to each jiupil, according to the parental views 
as to his (or her) future career in life. In some cities, the popular 
demand (to which the High School must bow) has compelled the 
introduction of three or even more " elective " courses of study (not 
subjects merel}') in the same school — a classical or commercial or a 
general English course, t The pupils in the several sections belong- 
ing to the same year are taken together in those general subjects 
which are common to one or more of these courses, such as History 
or Algebra, and where any branch of a subject is pursued to a 
greater extent by one set of pupils more than another, further sub- 
divisions may be formed. As a consequence of this great liberty 
of " election " on the part of scholars as to the course of study 
they will joursue, the High Schools of America are almost all taught 
upon the "departmental" system, i.e., each member of the teaching- 
staff is a specialist, having his own special department of school- 
work — one, or, it may be, two subjects which he teaches throughout 
the school — one teacher taking all the Latin, another Algebra and 
French, another Greometry and History, another English, and so 
on. This system is not the usual one in English Endowed and 
Public Schools (though it is largely practised in the High Schools 
for Girls which have lately been established), where each master has 
his own class for a given half-year, which he takes in a wide range 
of subjects, only passing his boys on to " dej)artmental " masters 
for modern languages, mathematics or science. But such a plan 
would be impossible where electiveness of studies is carried to such 
an extent as in America. 

As may well be imagined from this descrij)tion, the difficulties of 
elaborating an effective school programme, which shall ensure the 
full employment of every teacher and scholar during the school 
hours are considerable. But the Departmental system in America 
has its drawbacks as well as its difficulties. I In the Grammar 
Schools from which the pupils have been drafted into the High 

* In many of the High Schools, especially in the centre and west of the United 
States, boys and girls are taught in the same school, and the proportion of girls to 
boys in the highest class of the High School is 3, 4, or even 5 to 1, This, of course, 
means that the women of America are better educated than the men. 

t Sometimes there are tivn English courses, one for children of English-speaking, 
and the other for children of German-speaking, parents, and called respectively the 
English-English, and the German-English courses. 

X For the latest references to the " Departmental plan," see Report of Commissioner 
of Education, 1887-8, pp. 196, 388. 



92 STATE EDUCATION. 

School, they have been accustomed to the class-teacher system, 
where scholar and teacher are thrown together for the greater part 
of the day's programme for a half-year or even a year at a time, and 
the relations between them become intimate, and even parental, in 
character. But all this is changed when they come to the High 
School. There each teacher gives instruction to perhaps 200 different 
scholars every day, and consequently teacher and scholar do not get, 
even at the end of the year, much beyond an attitude of amiable 
neutrality. It is admitted that the pupils feel this reduction of 
personal interest in themselves keenly, and that this is one reason of 
their abandoning the High School course so frequently soon after 
admission. 

Coming now to the special studies of the American High Schools 
many circumstances will occur to the mind as militating against the 
attainment to the same high standard of work which is reached by 
a thoroughly efficient Endowed or Public School in England. It is 
obvious that, where the study of a foreign language is only com- 
menced at the advanced age of fourteen or thereabouts, no such 
proficiency in Latin and Greek is attainable as compared with that 
which an English boy can show who was introduced to one of these 
languages at eight or nine years of age. 

Again, a very general age for admission to an American Uni- 
versity, even to the older institutions of Harvard and Yale, is 
seventeen ; consequently a boy who showed marked capacity or 
taste for classical studies would be passed out of the High School 
and on to the University at a much earlier age than in England, 
and the High Schools would not be called upon to carry the 
classical course beyond his requirements at seventeen years of age. 
In a word, the head scholars of an American High School are just 
three, or at most four, years removed from their Latin declensions ; 
in an English High School they would be more nearly eight 
to ten years from that initiation into the Latin tongue. The 
fundamental difference between these schools in the two countries 
cannot be more concisely put. Latin or Greek Verse Composi- 
tion is unknown; the Professor of Classical Literature- at John 
Hopkins University (Baltimore) told the writer that he thought 
he was the only man in America who could write Greek Iambics, 
and he was an Oxford man. Ijatin Prose Composition is not 
taught to any great extent. Most of the classical work that^would 
be shown up by the scholars of the first class of an American 
High School, aged seventeen or thereabouts, would only pass 
muster in an English Public School for boys of fifteen. Great 
attention is, however, paid to Mathematics. Pupils do not, as a 
rule, study more than hvo foreign languages, so that those who 
are following the complete classical course, and taking up both 
Latin and Greek, are not taught any modern language. It is not 
usual, even among those who have elected for the English or Com- 
mercial courses, to find more than one modern language studied, 
which would be either French or German. German is the most 
popular of these two " Electives," and naturally, because of the 
large German-speaking element to be found in most of the great 



WESTERN STATE EDUCATION. 93 

cities. Several branches of Science : — Physics, Phj'siology, Botany 
are included in the possible curriculum. Much more attention 
than in corresponding Schools in England is paid to English 
Language and Literature, Constitutional History (of the United 
States), and General Geography. The complaint is still frequent in 
the Reports of Superintendents that in these and the science subjects 
the tendency is to require of the pupils mere memorizing of the para- 
graphs of their text-books, " dull as a bill of lading and scrappy as 
an invoice." The slavery to text-books has never been so conspicu- 
ous in English High Schools, though it cannot be said that the 
schools of this country are altogether free from it. Teaching here, 
as there, is frequently an artificial, not a natural, process. And it 
must be so in any part of the world where more people profess the 
art than those who have a natural aptitude for it, or have taken the 
pains to study its principles. The moral of all which is — train 
your teachers. 

But there are two institutions which must be excepted from most 
of the foregoing criticisms on American High Schools — the Latin 
High School, and the English High School, at Boston, That city 
is, as everybody is aware, the nursing-mother of American National 
Education. Noblesse oblige, and whatever Boston does in the matter 
of Education is always worthy of its traditions and its enlightened 
educational faith. It has recently (1881) erected for the Boys' 
Latin and English High Schools, under one roof or series of roofs, 
what may be indeed called a school-palace, vieing in the complete- 
ness of its equipment and architectural fitness with anything of 
which Vienna — that city of school-palaces — can boast. The late 
Bishop Eraser visited (in 1865) the English High School when it 
was in its old premises, and said of it even then, in his Beport to 
the Schools Inquiry Commission, that " it ought to be put in a 
glass-case and carried over to England," as a specimen of what a 
school for the training of the English Middle Class for professional 
and business avocations should be. Would not his heart sink within 
him in despair at England ever rising to the same loft}^ concej)tion 
of what is true wisdom in regard to the education of the middle- 
classes, if he saw this school as it is now, in all the magnificent 
surroundings of its new home, with the most perfect class-room 
arrangements, with science lecture theatres, laboratories and gymna- 
sium, and with every newest device for securing the orderliness, 
health, and efficient instruction of its pupils ! The English High 
School for boys was originally founded in 1827, but the Latin High 
School is by far the oldest American Public School, datmg from 
1635, five years after the oi-iginal settlement of that city and a year 
before the founding of Harvard University. This latter school, alone 
of American High Schools supported by public funds, bears a close 
resemblance to our Public Schools or First Grade Endowed Schools 
in England. The object of the school is distinctly to prepare boys 
for the University, and parents are required to signify their intention 
of giving their sons a University education. It is not a Finishing 
School, preparing boys for business life, as the American High 
Schools of the ordinary type profess to be, and as the other — the 



94 STATE EDUCATION. 

Boston English High School — is, but it is a Preparatory School for 
the Universit}^ Instead of admitting boys only on condition of 
their having completed the Grammar School course, they are en- 
couraged to enter much earlier, and the admission Examination 
only requires a standard to be reached equivalent to the third class 
of the Grammar School, instead of the first. Thus boys of twelve, 
or even eleven, find their way into the Latin High School, and as 
they stay till seventeen, and sometimes till eighteen years of age, 
and devote their time mainly to the classics — with some mathematics 
and science in addition — it follows that the majority of them go to 
College with six or seven years of thorough classical training as a 
foundation for further study. 

Recently also, the Board School for Boston has erected Girls' 
Latin, and Girls' English High Schools in another part of the city, 
and with courses of instruction precisely the same as those in the 
corresponding schools for boys. These schools are the result of 
an agitation carried on over many years to obtain for girls the privi- 
lege of being trained to an intelligent womanhood on the same 
grounds, and by the same means, as boys had long been trained to 
an intelligent manhood. The maxim of co-education, which is that 
boys and girls should be educated together, up to any age, in the 
same school and in the same class-rooms is not accepted in Boston. 
This principle has been very generally adopted in High Schools in 
the cities of the newer "Western States of America, and in towns of 
small population in the Eastern States, for obvious reasons of 
economy ; but it does not meet with favour in the larger of the old 
communities in the East, and has led to considerable abstentions 
from the use of the Public High School on the part of the wealthier 
classes in the West, who prefer to send their daughters at all events, 
and even their sons, to private Academies. Though co-education 
finds many able and honest advocates among prominent educationists 
on a priori grounds, parents of families find that it bristles with 
practical difficulties. The question is a wide one, and cannot be 
satisfactorily dealt with in this essay. But with regard to High 
Schools — and we are now speaking exclusively of such Schools — 
where the scholars are of ages from fom'teen to eighteen and are drawn 
from homes of widely- different surroundings and social ideas, it may 
be assumed — to quote Dr. Philbrick's words — "that separate educa- 
tion of the sexes and not co-education in the High School grade of 
the city schools is the normal finality to which all civilisation tends." 
With this verdict, most English people will, doubtless, agree. 

In closing these remarks upon American Secondary Education as 
part of the Common School System, we conclude, as we began, by 
emphasizing the one great and glaring point of contrast between 
America and England : — AVhatever the shortcomings of the American 
High School, its glory is that it exists everywhere ; maintained at 
the public cost of the tax-payer, within reasonable reach of every 
family of the middle classes, and accessible to the brighter intelli- 
gences among the poorest ; while, whatever the excellences of the 
English Endowed School, where it is found in good working order, 
the crying grievance is that it exists only in a few favoured but 



WESTERN STATE EDUCATION. 95 

isolated spots, and the bulk of the middle classes of England as 
well as the exceptionally gifted of the working classes, 

" look up, and are not fed, 
But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, 
Rot inwardly." 

In lifting up his lamentation over this glaring defect in our 
English educational S3'stem, Matthew Arnold, though dead, 3'et 
speaks words of wisdom and of justice when he says : * — " The 
existing resources for secondary instruction, if judiciously co- 
ordered and utilised, would prove to be immense ; but undoubtedly 
gaps would have to be filled, an annual State grant and municipal 
grants would be necessary. That is to say, the nation would per- 
form, as a corporate and co-operative work, a work which is now 
never conceived and laid out as a whole, but is done sporadically, 
precariously^ and insufficiently. We have had experience how ele- 
mentary instruction gains by being thus conceived and laid out, 
instead of being left to individual adventure or individual benevo- 
lence. The middle class, who contribute so immense a share of the 
cost incurred for the public institution of elementary schools, wliile 
their own school supply is so miserable, would be repaid twenty 
times over for their share in the additional cost of publicly institut- 
ing secondary instruction by the direct benefit which they and theirs 
would get from its system of schools. The upper class, which has 
bought out the middle class at so many of the great foundation 
schools designed for its benefit, and which has monopolised what 
good secondary instruction we have, owes to the middle class the 
reparation of contributing to a public system of secondary schools." 



3. Free, Compulsory, and Secular Education. 

Thirdl}^ throughout the American Common School System — alike 
in Primary, Grammar, and High Schools — and in all the States 
without exception, instruction is gratuitous, or, in ordinary parlance, 
free. 

The adoption of the principle of Free Schools has only become 
general in the United States within the last quarter of a century. 
In Massachusetts, and in tliose of the New England States where 
the original settlements were made, and the State system set up, in 
the 17tli century, b}'^ Presbyterian exiles from England, the " Free " 
School was adopted from the very first. The explanation of this is, 
that the Presbyterian exodus from these shores (which is not to be 
confounded, as is often the case, with the Puritan exodus to Ply- 
mouth in the " Mayflower ") was largely composed of men of means 
and of fair social position among the middle classes — country 
squires, clergymen, lawyers and merchants, such as the Winthrops, 
Vanes, Eatons and Bellinghams ; and these men had been educated 
in English Endowed Grammar Schools, in all (or almost all) of 

* See his article in the Fortniglitly Revieio quoted above, p. 89. 



96 STATE EDUCATION. 

which instruction was entirely (or ahnost entirely) gratuitous. These 
men, therefore, carried the principle of free education with them 
from England ; and it is their special glory that they enlaj-ged the 
conception of this " free " principle so as to cover the educational 
needs of every, even the poorest, citizen of the new communities 
across the Atlantic, all the while that " the poor," i.e. the labouring 
classes in the mother country, remained Avithout any education till 
the present centiny, and even now do not receive it at the public 
cost, without school fees. But the difficulty of raising sufficient 
funds for educational purposes, as the population of the community 
increased faster than its wealth, led even the New England States 
to fall back upon the expedient of school fees, except Massachusetts, 
which has under all financial stress remained true to the spirit and 
letter of its earliest Education Law. And so, school fees were 
exacted in the form familiarly known as " rate-bills," from all 
parents (except in cases of povert}'-, which had to declare and prove 
itself) in all but this State until about the middle of the j)resent 
century. Then an agitation commenced agamst them, largely on 
the ground that " attendance was repelled by directly taxing it " ; 
and this, gaining force and volume as it progressed, slowly and 
steadily prevailed, first in one State and then in another, until, by 
the year 1.871, the rate-bill had entirely disappeared, and instruction 
in the Common Schools of every State became entirely gratuitous. 
The effect of the removal of direct taxation from school attendance 
has been just what was anticipated : greater enrolment and more 
regular attendance have been characteristic of the school returns 
uninterruptedly since the abolition of fees. 

A further movement is gaining ground for the gratuitous supply 
of text-books and stationery. The arguments for this extension of 
the principle of gratuitous instruction are partly economic and partly 
moral : (1) Expense would be saved, because the books would be 
purchased on more advantageous terms by the School Board, and, 
when they had served their purpose with one batch of scholars, 
would be available for use by the next batch coming up to that 
grade ; and (2) The invidious distinction between the well-to-do 
who can afford to buy books and the poor who, under present regu- 
lations, can only obtain their books gratis on a personal plea of poverty, 
would be obliterated. The policy of supplying free books has been 
adopted for sevent}^ years in Philadelphia and for fifty years in New 
York, and its success has led to its adoption in many other cities. 
The State Law of Massachusetts, which made the provision of text- 
books by a city or town optional by an enactment in 1873, has since 
1884, made it compulsory upon all cities and towns to furnish all 
pupils in the public schools with free books and stationery.* 

This is the place to say something about compulsion, or the en- 

* " The free text-book Act has undoubtedly been a large factor in filling our high 
schools and the upper classes of the grammar schools." Eeport Boston School 
Committee, 1886-7. In Massachusetts in 1888, the average attendance was 90 per 
cent, of the average membership (Eep. Mass. Board of Education, 1888) ; in England, 
the average attendance for the same year was 77 per cent, of the number on the 
books. 



WESTERN STATE EDUCATION. 97 

forcement of attendance at school by legal enactment. The American 
States have shown very great reluctance thus to interfere with the 
legal rights of parents over their children, and to assert the legal 
rights of children as against their parents. But they are rapidly 
recognising the stern logic of facts which, presented in the form of 
annual statistics of child-vagrancy and adult-illiteracy, are con- 
vincing them that parental indulgence, neghgence and greed, are 
greater sources of danger to the community than any encroachment 
could be on parental liberty to deprive his oifspriJig of education. 
" The State, though it has provided a free gift to its children, yet 
finds it necessary to compel its acceptance " — this is the painful 
conclusion to which the American mind is coming, but only very 
slowly and unwillingly. Barely one-half of the States (only 16 or 
,17 out of 38) have as yet adopted any compulsory laws, and these, 
where they are in force, are generally very mild in character, and 
are still more mildly administered. The most stringent compulsory 
law does not require attendance for more than half the number of 
weeks in the school year, and then only from children above eioht 
years of age ; the offence of truancy rarely touches more than excep- 
tional and flagrant cases ; the penalties for the breach of tlie law on 
the part of parents and guardians are (except in Massachusetts) 
slight and ineffectual, and only in Massachusetts, and perhaps in 
one or two cities, are truant officers appointed to search out cases of 
illegal employment, or are penalties attached to such illegal employ- 
ment of children of school age. In many States where the law (as 
in New York State Law, 1875) looks strong, it is practically a dead 
letter.* 

The contrast with England in this respect is most strikino'. 
Though England has not provided education as a free gift to her 
children, she has yet determined to enforce its accej^tance. And, 
having determined this, she has set to work in spite of the retention 
of the school fees to carry out compulsion with a rigour which is in 
marked contrast to the mildness of American compulsion. In 
JEngland, the Law, first introduced in 1870, and strengthened by 
further enactments in 1876 and 1880, is now universal ; it applies to 
all children over jive years of age ; it requires regular attendance 
morning and afternoon for five days in the week all through the 
school year ; it imposes penalties upon parents for the irregular 
attendance of their children as well as for their truancy and 
vagrancy, and upon employers for illegal employment of children 
who should be at school ; and it has armed School Boards, and 
School Attendance Committees in non-School Board areas, with 
very large powers, which they are obliged to exercise, for follow- 
ing up and detecting offenders, whether children, or parents, or 
employers of labour. 

The question that is now arousing considerable public interest in 
England, and pressing upon practical statesmen for solution, is 
whether the community can fairly and reasonably enforce such a 



* See Parliamentary Blue Book, Royal Commission oa Education, Foreign Returns, 
1888, p. 295. 

VOL. I. H 



98 STATE EDUCATION. 

stringent compulsory Law without making the education to which it 
applies a free gift for the compelled, at the public cost. 

Fourtlil}^ and lastl}^ instruction in the Common Schools is con- 
fined to secular subjects entirely in three-fourths of the States ; * 
and in the remaining States, religious instruction of an unsectarian 
character is either required to be given (in New Hampshire alone), 
permitted to be given, or not forbidden to be given, by the teachers, 
with the right of children to absent themselves ; and this permission 
is very variously made use of, the amount of religious instruction in 
most cases being limited to reciting the Lord's Praj'er and reading 
the Bible without comment. 

The Common School is only one of the agencies recognised as 
-operating for the development of the perfect manhood of an American 
citizen, and, as the School does not usurj), so neither does it ignore, 
the functions of the Church and the Family as copartners with it in 
this development. This is the explanation of the attitude of America 
towards religious instruction. Moreover, there are practical considera- 
tions which have influenced this division of labour. The existence of 
a Roman Catholic population in a city — if these children are to have 
the same educational rights as those of all other American citizens 
to the schools to which all alike contribute by taxation — has of 
itself the effect of confining the teaching exclusively to purely 
secular subjects. The lioman Catholics will not accept unsectarian 
religious teaching at any price ; they will not allow the children to 
be present at the reading from a version of the Bible (the Authorized 
Version) which, though accepted by Protestant Churches, is repudi- 
ated by their own Church. Protests are raised, from time to time, 
against what is considered so disastrous for morality and religion as 
a school system which, though it enjoins the teaching and inculca- 
tion of moral principles, largely precludes reference to the highest 
moral sanction. American State and City Reports are ver}^ reticent 
on this subject from fear, possibly, of stirring up a heated discussion 
which would hinder the progress of the school system ; but on the 
whole it seems as if the secular platform is maintaining its ground 
in spite of an occasional charge of " godlessness " which can be so 
readily met, as it has been met by the following words of Secretary 
John W. Dickenson of the Massachusetts State Board of Education :t 
'" The public schools are condemned by some because they are god- 
less institutions. The charge should be carefully examined for its 
meaning. If it means that theology is not one of the branches of 
-study required or permitted to be taught, the charge is true, and the 
public Common School could not live a da}^ if it were not true. If 
it means that the schools are anti-religious in any sense, the charge 
has already been shown to be unqualifiedly false. It must be false, 
unless the cultivation of good intellectual and moral habits is 
•opposed to a faithful consideration of the highest truths that refer to 

* Twenty-seven out of the thirty-six States who furnished Keturns to the Royal 
Commission on the Elementary Education Acts, see Blue Book, Foreign Returns, 1888. 
The remaining nine States are Florida, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New 
Jersey, Oregon. Pennsylvania, Vermont and Virginia. Ohio made no Return. 

t See Report, Mass. Board of Education, 1 888, p. 78. 



WESTERN STATE EDUCATION. 99 

our future, as well as to our j^resent, well-being. What harm can 
x^ome to a true religion from the ability to read, or to perform 
iuithmetical problems ; from a knowledge of the constitution and 
uses of things in the natural world ; from an understanding of the 
principles and forms of our civil Grovernment ; from the power to 
reason correctly ; from a training in the practice of good manners ; 
or from the cultivation of the virtues, which are the ornament of 
>societv and the basis of a republican constitution ? It seems hardly- 
possible that in this age of the world, and in this civilised State, 
religion should stand in fear of general intelligence, or of personal 
freedom." 



4. The Training of Teachers, and " Teachers'' Institutes." 

No survey of American Common School Education would be 
-complete which did not include some account of the provision made 
in the several States for the supply of teachers and for their efficient 
training. The right to select the teacher is possessed, and tena- 
jciously clung to, by each local School Board, and the only control, 
which each State can and does exercise over the qualifications of tlu^ 
teachers employed within its area, lies in fixing the conditions under 
which it is prepared to grant licences to teach (after examination by 
the State Superintendent), and in refusing all " ai>propriations " 
from the State Education Fund to any City or Town Board which 
employs unlicensed or uncertificated teachers. Most of the States 
issue such licences or certificates, and exercise the power of the 
purse — with greater or less effect upon the Boards according to the 
length of that purse — to exclude uncertificated teachers from the 
Public Schools. The qualifications required are ver}' various, and 
for teachers in the rural districts, often deplorably low ; but, as a 
rule, no one is allowed to undertake any subjects except those for 
which his certificate shows him to be qualified. The School Boards 
of the great cities, in like manner make the possession of a certificate 
from the City Superintendent a condition of employment as a 
teacher. 

The source of supply of Teachers is found in the ' Graduates ' of 
the Grammar or High Schools, or from those who have spent one 
year or more in Normal Schools or at the Universities. The age 
at which young persons commence teaching may be as young as 16 
or 17, but is rarelj^ less than 18 in cities and populous towns. The 
English " pupil-teacher " system is not found anywhere in the States. 
By far the larger proportion of teachers engaged in the common 
schools are women. The teachers in the primary schools, all but the 
principals (and sometimes even the principals) of Grammar Schools 
for both sexes, and some of those in High Schools for boys are 
women. They stay in the profession longer than the men, in- 
tending, unless they marry, to make a liveliliood by it. The men, 
on the other hand, largely use teaching as a stepping-stone to other 
literary professions, or to the many avenues of commerce which are 

H 2 



lOo STATE EDUCATION. 

continually opening up in such a country of new enterprises and new 
conquests over primitive nature as America. The scale of pay for 
men (except in Massachusetts) is not at all calculated to counteract 
this influence, heing decidedly low, considering the high rents and 
great cost of living ; and is often (in the Western States) very slightly 
higher than that of women. Then, most of the Boards, especially 
those outside the cities, make the appointments of their teachers 
terminate at the end of each school year ; and the shortness of the 
engagement, and the insecurity of re-engagement, greatly favour 
and encourage this tendency to treat " school-keeping " as a 
temporary occupation.* 

By way of comparison and contrast, it may first be noted that, 
in Enofland also, the appointment of the teacher rests solely with 
the School Boards or Bodies of Managers, while Parliament (through 
the Education Department) lays down as a condition of sharing in 
the Goverment grant, that the Head Teacher, at least, shall hold a 
Government Certificate, and that the rest of the staff shall possess 
certain qualifications; and here, also, small schools in rural districts 
are allowed to he in charge of head teachers with qualifications of a 
comparatively low standard (known as the "provisional certificate")- 
The Teachers in English Elementary Schools are mostly recruited 
from the Elementary schools themselves — a state of things rendered 
possible, and indeed purposely created, by the "pupil-teacher system," 
whereby young persons of both sexes may, and do, enter the profes- 
sion at the early age of 14. The numerical preponderance of women 
over men engaged in teaching is not so great as in America, in spite 
of the existence of Infant Schools staffed wholly by women, because 
here as a rule, boys are taught, after the infants' stage is passed, 
entirely by men. Again, in marked contrast to the American phe- 
nomenon,' the vast majority of the men who enter the profession 
(certainly if they get beyond the pupil-teacher stage and become 
assistants, or go' to a Training College), take it up as a means of 
livelihood and" adopt it permanently. This great advantage to edu- 
cation which the English schools possess over the American is 
larc^ely secured to them by comparative fixity of tenure, and by 
the^ hioher rate of salaries for men (taking into account the smaller 
cost of livino) which generally obtains in Eugland, no less than by 
the tendency characteristic of this country to choose a career and 

stick to it. .-.„,.,., 

But the American States have not remamed satisfied with simply 
requiring, where they could, that the teachers employed should 
possess some kind of certificate attesting to a certain amount of 
knowledge of the subjects to be taught, but they have, most of 
them realised the paramount necessity of some training for them 
in the art and science of education. Accordingly, second to none of 
the means by which each State — as a State — influences the Common 
School instruction within its borders, its great concern has been to 
secure this professional instruction. The last half-century, com- 

* " The tenure of office of teachers is becoming more permanent, and it is a sign of 
progress." Rep. Mass. Board of Education, 1888. 



WESTERN STATE EDUCATION. loi 

menciug with the 5'ear 183D, when the first State Normal Schools 
were established by Massachusetts at Lexington (transferred to 
Framingham) and at Westfield, has witnessed the founding of nearly 
one hundred of tliese Normal Schools (or Training Colleges, as 
they would be called in England) ; and, if we add to these the 
Normal Schools and Teachers' Training Classes set up by counties 
and cities, a grand total of 134 PubUc Normal Schools is reached, 
maintained by public funds, and, in most cases, free of charge to 
those students who declare their intention of following their pro- 
fession in the Common Schools.* Of these Normal Schools, Wis- 
<.'onsin alone supplies hve, Massachusetts six, New York State nine, 
and Pennsylvania no fewer than eleven. The demand for pro- 
fessionally trained teachers is still largely in excess of the supply, 
and the States are every year founding additional Normal Schools. 
In the Southern States, Avliere the need is most felt and the State 
resources are subject to most strain, the Peabody Trust has 
stimulated and assisted local efibrt (as in Virginia, South Carolina, 
and Tennessee) with liberal appropriations. 

In the Cities which have taken professional training in hand, the 
machinery for this training assumes various forms, adapted to local 
circumstances. The High School for Girls at Philadelphia, which 
has been presided over for the last twenty-live years, by the 
veteran Principal, George W. Fetter, is the Normal School for that 
city. Out of a total of nearly 2000 Pupils (Rep. Bureau of 
Educn., 1887-8), 228 Pupils were enrolled for the Teachers' Train- 
ing Course, and 575 Students were in the Practising Schools attached, 
which embrace boj's, girls, and Kindergarten departments. This 
Normal School has a three years' course, commencing at about 
fourteen years of age, and a fourth year of studentship in the 
Practising Schools, before teaching certificates are awarded. New 
York City has a corresponding institution on an equally large scale, 
and it is estimated that nearly one-half of the students who have 
graduated at this School (here called a College) are teaching in the 
Common Schools of the city. In other cities, we find a Training 
Class formed as an extra year's course in the High School, or 
ix, Normal Department attached to the State or local University 
which may happen to be situated in its vicinity. The State Normal 
Schools, which are mostly for women only, though some are for both 
sexes, usually arrange for day or non-boarding students only, each 
student making private arrangements for residence in the neighbour- 
hood of the School; but some of them receive Boarders, while there 
are three or four State Schools (in Massachusets and New Jersey), 
which are restricted to boarding students. Each State makes its 
terms of admission, which are dependent upon examinations equiva- 
lent to the higher Grammar, or middle High School, grades. The 
usual age of admission is sixteen for women, and seventeen for men. 
The " graduating " course varies considerably in length, from one 

* Report, Bureau of Education, Washington, U, S. A.. 1887-8. Ohio is the only one 
of the older States which has not established a State Normal School, but there is a 
Normal Department at the State University at Athens, and Normal Schools at 
Cincinnati, Cleveland, and two other cities. 



102 STATE EDUCATION. 

3'ear in some States, to three or four in others. No religious 
instruction is given in Normal Schools.* 

In treating of the j^rofessional training of teachers in America, 
mention, and very conspicuous mention, is merited by a piece of 
machiner}^ entirely of American origin, and quite peculiar to that 
country. This is " The Teachers' Institute." This kind of 
organization, the first experiment in which was made by the 
voluntary efforts of Dr. Henry Barnard, at Hartford, Conn., in 1839, 
has since been universally recognised as a most valuable supplement 
to, or substitute for, professional training in the Normal School 
proper, so that all the States with few exceptions, have now incorpo- 
rated into their School laws regulations for the holding of Teachers'" 
Institutes, and have set apart appropriations for their support, even 
making attendance compulsory in some cases upon all teachers^ 
engaged in public schools. 

A Teachers' Institute may be defined concisel}^ as an " itinerant 
normal school" for the professional education of teachers actually 
engaged in teaching. The Institute is organised under direction of 
the State Su2:)erintendent, who associates with himself one or two* 
principals of Normal Schools, and some of the ablest City or Town 
Superintendents in the district in which the Institute is to be held, 
and thus a Normal School is extemporized at a given centre, which 
holds a session for some daj^s or weeks there, and then migrates to- 
another centre, passing from place to place during the autumn 
months. B}'^ this means an Institute normal training is brought 
within easy reach of every teacher in the State once ever}^ year. 
The instruction is generally given gratuitously at the expense of 
the State, and, wherever the Institute is held, all sections of the 
residents combine to reduce the cost which would fall upon the 
teachers for board and lodging by hospitably housing or enter- 
taining them during the session of the Institute. The duration 
of each session varies inversely with the other provision which 
the States, Counties and Cities have made for normal training. 
Where, as in Massachusetts, a large proportion of the teachers- 
actually employed in the schools have already received normal train- 
ing in a Normal School proper, the Institute session lasts for only 
one clear day.f But where, as in the more AVestern and Southern 
States, the large majority of the teachers are not normalty trained^ 
the Institute Session is made to extend to two, or even three weeks. 
Other supplementary aids to the professional training and general 
culture of teachers are to be found in Township Institutes, Teachers' 
Conventions and Associations, which exist in nearlj^ every town 
having a graded system of public schools; also in Teachers' Beading. 
Circles for the study of works on Pedagogy and Moral Science ; and 
in Holidaj'^ or Summer Normal Schools, where recreation, social 
intercourse, and j^i'ofessional study and discussion combine to pro- 

* For some insight into the inner working of American Normal Schools, the reader 
is referred to " Notes on American Schools and Training Colleges," by Dr. Fitch, Her 
Majesty's Inspector of Training Colleges for Schoolmistresses, Blue Book, 1889. 

f Nineteen such one-day Institutes were held in the State of Massachusetts in 
1887-8. See Eep. Mass. Board of Education, 1887-8. 



WESTERN STATE EDUCATION. 103 

mote healthiness, good fellowship, homogeneity and a high standard 
of educational ideals among American Teachers.* 



5. Conclusion. 

In bringing this survey of the American Common School system 
to a close, the writer is again impressed with the inefficacy of facts 
and figures, reports and statistics, however deftly handled, to strike 
the characteristic note of the American system, so as to convey to 
an English mind all that it conveys to an American. The 
system is the creation of the all-pervading democratic idea, which, 
Minerva-like, leapt into full being in the seventeenth century : 
in England, the feudalism of the middle ages still survives, and 
is only slowly being transmuted by the infusion of the demo- 
cratic idea of the nineteenth. When our English Eoyal Commis- 
sion on the Education Acts sent its paper of inquiries the other 
day to the several American State Boards of Education asking, 
among others, the question, " From what class of society are the 
teachers drawn?" that State, f which gave back the laconic replj', 
*' We are democrats," put the fundamental differentia between the 
English and American mind into the clear view which a flash of 
lightning momentarily produces on a landscape in darkness. 
"Among the important virtues," says Mr. Secretary Dickenson, ^ 
" which the public school is adapted to cultivate, is patriotism or 
love of counUy. The love of benefactors is a natural aflection. 
It springs up in the mind on the perception of favours received. 
The public school is the free gift of the State. It is the best gift 
of a government to its people. As the scholar comes to under- 
stand its value to him as an individual and a citizen ; as he 
becomes aware that his intelligence and the free government which 
protects him are, in an important sense, the results of its developing 
influences, his love of country grows stronger, and his desire to 
promote its welfare increases. In the same way it may be shown 
that the public school, by its organization and exercises, is adapted 
to cultivate all the social virtues, and at the same time to train the 
children to that self-control and independence in thinking which 
are the necessary characteristics of the people of a self-governed 
State." 

No doubt there is much to be avoided by England in the methods 
and working of the American Common Schools. But is there not 
also much that may be prudently imitated ? After all, we English 

* The idea of Reading Circles and Summer Schools has recently been presented to 
the English Public through the attention which has been drawn to them by Dr. Paton 
of Nottingham, Dr. Percival of Rugby, Professor Stuart and others (see Dr. Fitch's 
description of the annual summer assembly by Chautauqua Lake in the Nineteenth 
Century for October, 1888). In connection with the University Extension Movement, 
a somewhat similar " Summer School " meets at Oxford for its third session in August 
next. 

t The State of Mississippi, see Blue Book, Royal Commission on Education Acts, 
Foreign Returns, 1888, p. 273. 

X Report of Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, 1888, p. 77. 



104 STATE EDUCATION. 

may well take a lesson from the American people of enthusiasm for, 
and a genuine belief in, education as a civilizing and ennobling force. 
No one in America fears (secular) education, or looks with dread 
upon anj^ of its possible consequences to society. There it is 
reverenced, deeply reverenced, as a saviour of societ3\ And the 
teachers, as Education's priesthood, share in that reverence, and 
receive accordingly that respect and deference which goes so far to 
compensate priesthoods all the world over for meagre material 
prospects and emoluments. We cannot be said to have yet learnt 
that lesson in England. 

E. F. M. MacCaethy. 



PART VII. 

NOTES ON EDUCATION IN CANADA AND 
AUSTEALIA. 

I. CANADA. 

In his " ProbJems of Greater Britain," Sir Charles Dilke draws 
attention to the fact — "a phenomenon," he calls it, "never seen 
before in the World's history, and never likely to be seen again " — 
that *'two countries (the United States and the Dominion of 
Canada) with a common frontier 4,000 miles in length, three- 
fourths of which is an artificial frontier, two countries under diffe- 
rent flags, inhabited by people to a great extent of identical race, 
speaking the same tongue, and each governed by free Federal 
institutions, are each now provided with independent parallel rail- 
way lines of communication" from ocean to ocean. An equally 
remarkable phenomenon is exhibited in the fact that each of these 
countries is provided with independent systems of public education, 
which have travelled, along with these peoples, on parallel lines, 
ever farther and farther westward, placing Vancouver educationally 
in touch with Quebec, and San Francisco with Boston. And 
another striking fact — these systems are not only independent, but 
characteristically different. All along the route of westward move- 
ment of the population in the United States one traces the per- 
vading spirit of that educational system, so largely (as we have 
shown in the preceding Article) political in its motive, which was 
set up by the Presbyterian settlers in Massachusetts in the seven- 
teenth century ; while along the parallel route in the Dominion, one 
is constantly reminded, in spite of distance and difference of 
development, of the methods of England of the nineteenth century, 
which, when the century was still quite young, grew out of tlie 
educational impulse identified Avith the names of Lancaster and 
Bell, and finding its most prominent exponent in the " National 
Society," whose headquarters are under the shadow of Westminster 
Abbey.* At one point, curiously enough, these systems almost 
touch. On the Michigan (U.S.A.) side of the Narrows, through 

* Tlie first impulse on behalf of public education in Lower Canada (Quebec) was 
Tnade in 1787; but, owing to sectarian differences, no general plan of education was 
set on foot until IS-il. In Upper Canada (Ontario) the first legislative enactment in 
favour of general education was passed in 18U7. (See Rev. J. Eraser's Report, Blue 
Rook, Schools Inquiry Commission, 1S67.) 



106 STATE EDUCATION, 

which the waters of Lake St. Clair travel on their way to Lake 
Erie, stands Detroit, while on the opposite shore, barely one mile 
across, stands Windsor (Upper Canada), and steam-ferries ply 
hourly between the two towns ; and 3'et, in educational as in other 
characteristics, Windsor smacks of Old England, but Detroit of 
New England. The resemblances to England are sometimes slight, 
and not visible to the superficial observer, for Upper Canada and 
New Brunswick, being more closely in geographical contact with 
the United States, have developed and perfected their S3"stems (in 
the last 30 years) on New England rather than English models. 
But still they are there — sometimes it is the architecture of a school 
building, sometimes the methods of a Training College ; here it is 
the " standards " of the curriculum, there the text-books ; but even 
as regards Ontario itself, the most educationally Americanized (next 
perhaps to New Brunswick) of the Provinces of the Dominion, 
the writer of this Article was told at Toronto, its capital, that 
Canadian Schools were not visited by Englishmen " because the 
amount of differentia was not sufficient to justifj^ a journe}- all that 

Each Province of the Dominion enjoys local self-government^ 
having a provincial legislature and a Lieutenant-Governor ap- 
pointed by the Federal (Dominion) Government. Counties, town- 
ships and municipalities have likewise the management of their 
own affairs, subject, of course, to the supreme control of the 
Provincial and Dominion legislatures. Education is almost entirely 
a matter under provincial and local control. The Federal Govern- 
ment has very little power in its hands, except to keep the peace in 
the i)resence of religious differences by securing the observance of 
the concordat between the Protestants and Roman Catholics, in the 
Provinces (chiefl}^ Lower Canada, Upper Canada and Manitoba) 
where the community is thus divided in opinion. In Lower Canada 
(Quebec and Montreal), and in Manitoba (Winnipeg), the law runs 
that " whenever in any municipality the regulations and arrange- 
ments of any school are not agreeable to an}' number whatever of 
the inhabitants professing a religious faith different from that of the 
majority of the inhabitants," the inhabitants so dissentient may 
appoint their own trustees who shall have power to establish and 
manage "dissentient" schools. They form a corporation, consti- 
tute their own school districts, fix and collect the assessments to be 
levied on the dissentient inhabitants; and are "entitled to receive, 
out of the general school fund appropriated to the municipality, a 
share bearing the same proportion to the whole sum allotted as the 
number of children attending these schools bears to the whole 
school population in the municipality : and a similar share in the 
building grant." * 

Practicall}', though this concordat makes for ])ence, it does not 
always secure it. The reason will appear from consideration of the 
circumstances of the city of Montreal. There the School popula- 
tion is divided between Protestants and Eoman Catholics in about 

* See Eev. J. Fraser's Report (Blue Book), pp. 308, 309. 



NOTES ON CANADA AND AUSTRALIA. 107 

the ratio of 28 to 7'2 ; but the wealth (to which the taxation bears 
a direct proportion) of the two communions is about in the ratio of 
50 to 50. Consequently, while the Protestants would contribute one 
half of the municipal school fund, they would only get the benefit of 
a little more than one quarter.* They further complain that, 
while they thus largely contribute to Roman Catholic schools, these 
schools give the children only a bare minimum of secular instruc- 
tion, while the Protestant schools are pinched for want of the funds 
Avhicli are required for the wider and more intellectual curriculum 
at which they aim. In Upper Canada (Ontario) the liberty to 
dissentients of establishing separate schools is more circumscribed. 
There "Protestants can only establish a separate school when the 
teacher of the common school is a Roman Catholic," and vice versa. 

New Brunswick — here, as elsewhere, showing distinct signs of 
American influence — has no separate schools for religious denomina- 
tions, and its schools are by law required to be unsectarian. The 
Ontario 2)ublic (protestant) schools are also largel}' unsectarian ; 
but the clergy of any denomination, or their authorised representa- 
tives, have the right to give religious instruction to the pupils of 
their own church in each schoolhouse at least once a week, after 
afternoon school. 

Each Provincial Government determines the main outlines of the 
School system for its Province. Acting through a Department of 
Education, it settles what Schools or Institutions shall be main- 
tained, what shall be the duties of School Boards or Trustees of 
municipalities, appoints Public School Inspectors, and determines 
the qualifications of the Teachers to be employed, and awards 
Teachers' Certificates by examination. The grant at its disposal 
for distribution among the School Boards is called the Legislative 
Grant. 

The local control over Education on the lines thus laid down is 
administered by School Boards or Corporations or Trustees (as in 
the United States) elected by the ratepayers of the city, town, 
village or rural school " section," as the case may be. The money 
locally raised for educational purposes is called the Mmiicipal 
Grant. 

All through the Dominion, then, the public schools are sup- 
ported (as in the United States) by a Legislative and a Municipal 
grant (State School Fund and local rate), but, unlike the United 
States, the scholars are not free in every Province. In Ontario, 
all children between the ages of five and twenty-one can at- 
tend school free, and therefore the High Schools as well as the 
Elementary Schools are free. The Model Schools and Training 
Colleges are also open free to bond Jide teachers in the Province. 

* This inequality ill the distribution of tlie " city school tax" has been partially 
remedied at Montreal by the formation of separate rating-lists or panels ; setting out 
the value of all real estate belonging to (1) Catholics, (2) Protestants, (3) Public 
Bodies or Neutrals. The rates collected on ihe Catholic panel are handed to the 
Catholic School Board (School Commissioners), and similarly to the Protestant School 
Board, but the amount collected from property entered on the third panel, which is con- 
siderable, is still divided between the Catholic aiul Protestant Boards in proportion to 
po2)ulatiun. • 



jo8 STATE EDUCATION. 

The Universit}' and University College of Toronto, by means of 
Endowments, " Scholarship Gifts," are enabled to give an almost 
gratuitous education to students. In the Provinces of smaller 
population, education in the primary schools, and also in the 
superior and grammar schools (where they exist) is free to all 
scholars residing in the school area. But education is not free in 
Lower Canada (Quebec and Montreal),* although remission of the 
fee is readily granted on the plea of povert}^ so that, in Montreal, 
for instance, about one-sixth of the scholars in attendance in the 
jjublic schools pay no fee. It is also provided with regard to the 
fees charged in high schools in that city, that, if fees are demanded 
at all, they shall be so moderate in amount that no one shall be 
excluded by poverty. Taking population into account, it appears 
that school fees are payable on behalf of every two out of seven of 
the school children in the Dominion. 

Coming next to compulsion, the law itself affecting school attend- 
ance is widely different in the several Provinces, and the actual 
practice still more divergent. In Ontario and the four smaller 
Provinces, British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Prince 
Edward Island, where education (as has been stated) is free, it 
is also compulsory; but in New Brunswick (which is most under 
United States influence), where education is free, it is not com- 
jjulsory ; and in Quebec, where it is not free, neither is it compul- 
sory. But even in the Provinces which have compulsorj^ clauses in 
their Education Laws, it is extremely doubtful whether the law in 
this respect is ever put into force, even to the extent of a fine, and 
certainl}^ not, in any case, to the extent of imprisonment. In 
Ontario, however, the authorities may possibl}" show a degree of 
firmness not prevalent elsewhere. The compulsory law in that 
Province provides that the school trustees shall impose upon 
neglectful parents a rate-bill not exceeding a dollar per month for 
each of their children not attending school ; and the school trustees 
may appoint an officer to ascertain the names of persons violating 
the Act in this matter. The highest penalty is a fine by the magis- 
trate not exceeding five dollars for the first offence, and double that 
penalty for every succeeding offence. In Prince Edward Island, the 
method exhibits an interesting divergence from the ordinary forms 
of compulsory attendance law : — the Government grant being paid 
on average attendance, the amount of this grant which the school 
board loses through the non-attendance of children is levied upon 
the parents of those children. 

Throughout the Dominion all teachers are adults, and the pupil- 
teacher system is unknown. Teachers enter the profession, males 
at 18 years of age (usually), and females at 16 ; and are trained in 
the Normal Schools, which are supported by the Provincial Govern- 
ments ; or at County Model Schools, which are supported at the 

* There is a monthly fee, payable compulsorily by the parent, for every child from 
7 to 14 years of age residing in the municipality and capable of attending school. 
This fee is payable for eight months of the year, and is levied with the other Assess- 
ments directly upon the parents, See Foreign Returns (Blue Book), 1S8}>. 



NOTES ON CANADA AND AUSTRALIA. 109 

joint cost of the Municipality and the Province. They receive their 
professional education almost entirely free of cost to themselves. 

Very little has as yet been done in Technical Education in the 
Dominion ; hut mention should he made of the excellent work in 
this direction done at the School of Practical Science, the Schools 
of Art, and tlie Agricultural College in Ontario, and at the Poly- 
technic School, Montreal. 



II. AUSTRALIA. 

The transition from the British Colonies in North America to the 
British Colonies in the Southern Hemisphere is, educationally, a 
passage from State systems of public education largely tinged with 
Denominationalism, to State systems which are, now, universally 
undenominational or secular. The Australian Colonies are essen- 
tially democratic, and so, like the United States, they all base their 
common school systems on the principles of religious freedom, and 
the non-establishment of any particular form of religious belief.* 
But the Governments in Australia are more distinctly bureaucratic, 
and less decentralized, than tliose in the Dominion ; and the admin- 
istration of Education Law, especially, has been retained in the 
hands of a central Government Department. Consequently, we 
find that those local influences which make against the ' local 
initiation of penal enforcements of neglected parental duties have 
far less power, and school attendance, which is universally com- 
pulsory, is far more rigidly enforced than in the Dominion or in the 
United States, even to the extent — unknown in English-speaking 
countries except England itself — of a summons before a police 
magistrate, and possible imprisonment. On the other hand, the 
Colonies of Australia share with the Provinces of the Dominion in 
the presence of a difterence of opinion on the subject of non-pay- 
ment of school fees. Public education is free only in Victoria and 
C^)ueensland (and New Zealand), but fees are charged in New South 
Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia.! 

The Central Department (called the Council of Education, or 
Education Department), to which reference has been made, is in 
each Colony or Province presided over by a Minister of Education, 
and has had assigned to it by an Act of the Provincial Legislature 

* Religions instruction may, under certain conditions. })e triven out of the ordinarv 
school hours by ministers of religion, and others, to children whose parents are 
willing that they should receive it. In South Australia, teachers may read portions 
of Scripture in the authorized, or Douay version, to such scholars as may be sent by 
their parents before 9'oO A.M.. but they must strictly confine themselves to Bible 
reading. 

•f Dr. R. W. Dale, in liis '-Impressions of Australia " (see Contnnqjoranj Raview 
Feb., 188'J), makes the following pertinent comment on this divergence in practice 
between the several colonial systems : — " Where the schools are free, the people whom 
I met seemed satisfied that they should remain free ; where fees are charged, I could 
not hear of any serious agitation for their abolition. In the absence of large masses 
of extremely poor parents, the question is not a " liurning ' one. There are no such 
serious administrative difficulties as those with wliich we at home have to deal in 
collecting the fees and in discriminating between parents who are able to pay and 
parents who are unable." 



no STATE EDUCATION. 

the determination of the number of schools required, the purchasing 
of the sites, the building of school premises, the number of school 
hours per day and school days per year, the amount of the fee 
(where charged), the course of instruction, the nature of the school- 
staff, the appointment, remuneration, promotion, and dismissal of 
teachers. It appoints an Inspector-General and Inspector of 
Schools, whose functions correspond in the main to those of Her 
Majesty's Inspectors under the Education Department in England, 
but who have greater power, as the future prospects of the teachers 
depend more intimately on their reports. It also establishes, 
maintains and manages Training Colleges, and awards the several 
grades of Teachers' Certificates, on the results of general and special 
examinations which it holds for that purpose, and on proved skill 
in actual teaching. The powers exercised by the Education Depart- 
ment of an Australian Province (or Colony) will thus be seen to be 
much more extensive in scope and jurisdiction than those of the 
English Education Department, or of the Government Department 
of a Province of the Dominion. The functions, therefore, of the 
local educational authorities will be proportionately smaller. And 
this is plainly indicated by their title : they are simply " Boards of 
Advice." These are elected by the local ratepayers in Victoria 
alone ; in all the other Provinces they are appointed by the 
Governor. Their constitution and general duties are, (1), to 
exercise general supervision over educational matters in their school 
district, and report to the Minister of Education on any matters 
affecting the general welfare of the schools ; (2), to maintain the 
school buildings in repair out of funds placed to their credit by the 
Minister; (3), to put themselves into close communication with the 
teachers, and to intervene in any cases of friction between them and 
parents ; (4), to determine the uses which may be made of school 
buildings out of school hours; (5), (in the Provinces where fees are 
charged), to consider and adjudicate upon all applications for free 
education and for reduction of fees, subject to the general regulations 
of the Education Acts ; and (6), to see to the effective carrying out 
of the compulsory clauses of the Acts, by summoning parents before 
the Board, and ordering such legal proceedings as may be neces- 
sary ; but all legal proceedings are conducted by officers specially 
authorised by the Minister, after receiving the recommendation of 
the Board of Advice.* 

The prescribed school age varies in the different Provinces. In 
South Australia it is from 7 to 13, in Victoria from 6 to 15, in 
Tasmania from 7 to 14, in New South Wales from 6 to 14, in 
Queensland from 6 to 12. In South Australia, and perhaps else- 
Avhere, the children may attend at five years of age, and Infant 
Schools may be established as departments of public schools for 
children between five and seven. The public schools are every- 
where in Australia strictly elementary schools, but South Australia 

* See Acts and Rco'ulations of the Education Department for South Australia. The 
duties of the Boards of Advice (or Public School Boards) in the other Provinces are 
defined in almost identical terms. 



NOTES ON CANADA AND AUSTRALIA. in 

supports an Advanced School for girls to meet the deficiency in the 
suppl.Y of high school education, which is met in the case of hoys by 
the three high schools at Adelaide ; and the New South Wales 
regulations provide that if in any public school a class can be 
formed of not less than twenty pupils who have reached a certain 
standard of attainment, the school may be declared a " superior 
2)ublic school," and in addition to more advanced work in the 
ordinary subjects, boys are to be taught mathematics, Latin, science, 
and drawing, and the girls, French, drawing, and sanitary science.*' 
Even German and Greek may be taught in these superior schools 
at the discretion of the Minister of Education. In addition to the 
superior public schools. New South Wales supports three or four 
regularly organized State High Schools. Liberal provision is, 
however, made in the other Colonies for the passage of deserving 
scholars from the public schools to the high schools which have 
been founded by denominational bodies or by private persons, and 
even to the Universities, by means of Exhibitions, Bursaries, and 
Scholarships. 

There is one leading feature of the Australian public school 
systems which differentiates them from either the United States or 
tiie Canadian systems, and which at once reflects the influence of 
the home Country upon its Colonies in the Southern seas, and 
that is, the presence of the pupil-teacher. In South Australia, 
candidates for pupil-teachership may be admitted at 13^- years of 
age, and after a period of probation go througli a further term of 
service of four years, unless they have matriculated at Adelaide 
University and are not less than fifteen years, when their period of 
service may be reduced to three years. As in England, they are 
eligible for admission to a Training College on having satisfactorily 
completed their term of apprenticeship. Similar regulations are in 
force in Victoria, Queensland, and New South Wales. 

E. F. M. MacCarthy. 



* These have been established in most of the large towns of New South Walep, 
Formerly a special fee was charged for these subjects, but, as it was found that the 
impositi(m of the fee acted injuriously upon the teachers, and prevented many children 
from receiving the full benefits of this provision, the fee was abolished. See the 
" Schools of Greater Britain," by John Russell. 



PAET YIll. 
NOTE ON COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 

Great Britain is the chief trading country in the workL Her 
merchants and shipowners are amongst the most enterprising and 
honourahle representatives of commerce ; her mercantile houses are 
to be found wherever barter exists ; and yet there is hardly a country 
in Europe where so little attention is paid to Commercial Education. 
There has been undoubtedly considerable improvement of late in 
the preparation of our youth for the mercantile career, but until 
recently every school oi" any pretensions was a " Classical, Com- 
mercial, and Mathematical Academy," where the Classics, to the 
exclusion of those modern languages which are so useful in every- 
day life, consisted of reading and learning off by heart a little of 
Virf^il or Tacitus. What part of the course of instruction could 
be called " Commercial" it is difficult to say, unless it was writing 
and arithmetic up to vulgar fractions, deciuials being a novel in- 
novation of " foreigners " ; and as for " Mathematics " they usually 
enabled the student to cross the bridge upon which the " Claimant " 
came to grief and nothing more. Even now a lad who receives 
Avhat is called a liberal education, and who is supposed to be training 
for commerce, generally leaves school without any knowledge of book- 
keeping ; in modern languages, he has probably acquired a smatter- 
ing^ of French and German, which will not be of the least value to him 
in practical intercourse with foreigners or in correspondence ; and 
in consequence of the useless information which he has laboured to 
acquire, he begins his commercial career under less favourable con- 
ditions than the son of an artizan who has received an elementary 
education at a Board School. That parents of the trading classes 
are beginning to appreciate these facts any reader may convince 
himself by inquiring as to the changes in relative attendances at 
Board and at Proprietary Schools, for he will find that the attendances 
at the latter have fallen off in many of our large towns, notwith- 
standing the increase of population, whilst the children of the lower 
middle classes are crowding into our Board Schools, not only 
because the school fees are lower, but because the practical in- 
struction which is given there is of greater value as a commercial 
training. Let us inquire for a moment how these inconsistencies are 
to be explained, and why the commercial education of our youtli 
is so greatly neglected. Does it not arise chiefly from the very pre- 
dominance which we enjoyed amongst the trading nations of the 
world ? A preponderance which was until lately so unquestioned 



NOTE ON COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 113 

that our countrymen abroad hardly took the trouble to learn the 
languages of those with whom they traded. It was their business 
to learn our language, and in our insular hauteur we compelled them 
to do so if they wished to enjoy the privilege of dealing with us. 
We are almost the only trading nation that adheres to its old- 
fashioned system of weights, measures, and coinage, and for no other 
reason than the repugnance to change and novelty. In one or two 
extensive branches of trade, as the corn trade for example, centals 
are taking the place of the " hundred weights " of 112 lbs., and florins 
were superseding half-crowns. Now and then you meet in one of 
our offices a young gentleman who has spent a year or two abroad, 
and who would not exchange his knowledge of French or German 
for all the dead languages, but as a rule we still expect foreigners 
to adapt themselves to our customs, to our metrical system, and 
to our language. 

And if he is insular in his commercial methods John Bull is equally 
eccentric in his commercial literature and phraseology, and it will 
soon be as difficult to teach a lad the jargon of the markets as the 
language of neighbouring nations. It is a kind of rokqmk which is 
understood alike in London and in Liverpool, in Glasgow, Cork and 
Belfast, Oats are " firm " and sugar is " steady " ; oils are " quiet " 
and lard is " stifl"" ; in iron, pigs are " nominal " ; in dyes, logwood 
is " strong," and so forth, until nearly every adjective, appropriate 
or otherwise, is imported into the category. But when the trader 
gives free play to his imagination, or soars into the higher regions of 
rhetoric, then he excels himself! "A waiting policy is being 
pursued " by the holders of lambswool, a " profound secrecy 
characterises the operations in the cheese market " ; whilst " the 
illusion is dispelled " in the tobacco trade, and " operators are rising 
to the occasion " ! 

Changes are, however, taking place in the relations between the 
trading nations of the world and between the classes of j)roducers 
and consumers which will necessitate corresponding changes in all 
our commercial methods. The old-fashioned ways are no longer 
suited to telegraph and telephone ; middle-men are being gradually 
displaced, and the producer tibroad is entering into direct relations 
with the consumer at home, or vice versa ; the travellers of one 
nationality are invading the trading ground and securing the con- 
nection of neighbouring peoples ; and the German who knows 
English enjoys a great advantage over the Englishman who does 
not know German. Only recently the Consuls in one of the newly 
enfranchised States of South-Eestern Europe sent home reports 
that English manufactures are being supplanted by those of Austria, 
although the latter are of inferior quality, through the pursuasiveness 
of " polyglot " Austrian commercial travellers. In this country the 
demand for French, German, Spanish, and Italian correspondents is 
increasing rapidly, and, owing to the ignorance of our own youth, it 
is found necessary to engage young clerks from abroad who are 
prepared to serve for low salaries, or even in many cases gratuitously, 
as " volunteers," in order that they may make themselves acquainted 
with our systems of trade, and may thus gain access to our markets. 

VOL. I. I 



114 STATE EDUCATION. 

Here and there an enterpising English firm may be fomid carrying 
the war into the enemy's comitry and sending some accomplished 
member of the house abroad to deal direct with continental con- 
sumers, and no one who is paying the least attention to the subject 
can fail to see that if we are to maintain our prestige as a trading 
nation, the youth of this country must receive a practical commercial 
education, and Latin and Greek must give place in our ordinary 
schools to French, German, and other modern languages. As the 
Lord Mayor recently remarked at a meeting which was held in the 
Mansion House to promote Commercial Education, the question has 
become one of " bread and butter," and itis well that the leading citizens 
of the metropolis are alive to its importance. The London Chamber 
of Commerce has made a commencement in the right direction, the 
great collegiate schools of the Metropolis have been enlisted in the 
cause, a couple of hundred leading firms have agreed, in the engage- 
ment of clerks, to give a preference to youths who possess certificates 
of competency in commercial knowledge, and there is little doubt 
that if the movement spreads, if the course of instruction is sound, 
and if the young gentlemen who succeed in obtaining certificates, don't 
give themselves airs of superiority when they enter into practical 
life, they will not only secure more lucrative employment at 
home, but will be found occupying situations of trust in foreign 
countries. 

It is not sufficient to teach young people to read and write French 
and German, but they should be taught to speak them fluently; they 
should be made thoroughly acquainted with the weights, measures, 
and coinages of the most important trading countries, with exchanges 
and bookkeeping ; they should learn shorthand, and be able to make 
rapid calculations by the decimal system. In driving a bargain a 
smart German or Frenchman will often make a calculation of profit 
or loss before a slow Englishman fully comprehends what is pro- 
posed. As for geography and a knowledge of the products of 
various countries, those are now better taught in many of our Board 
Schools than in Colleges and High Schools for the upper classes. 

Where a youth is preparing to enter any particular branch of 
commerce or industry he cannot be too early familiarised with such 
details as are likely to be of use to him in after life. It is not at all 
unusual to meet with clever French or German traders who possess 
a good technical knowledge of the nature and manufacturing uses of 
the substances in which they deal, and even a fair general ac- 
quaintance with the manufacturing processes of their customers ; 
such men are not likely to throw away new products in ignorance of 
their value to the manufacturer. Economic botany (which is already 
taught in some of our best Board Schools), zoology, chemistry, &c., 
will ere long form a necessary part of a purely commercial education. 
And there are one or two other aspects of this question which are 
entitled to a passing notice. We hear a good deal about the danger 
of divorcing religion from education, and great pains are taken, 
especially in our denominational schools, to impart accurate know- 
ledge in the three C's, creeds, catechisms, and ceremonial. No 
doubt the moral virtues are also inculcated, but does it ever occur 



NOTE ON COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 115 

to the teacher to impress upon the young that a lie is a He under 
whatever circumstances it may be uttered ; that is it no less cul- 
pable, however common it may be, to misrepresent the value or quality 
of an article of produce offered for sale, or to mis-state any fact or 
circumstance relating to a bargain for the purpose of securing some 
advantage in trade, than it is to mislead a teacher or parent by a 
falsehood uttered to screen a fault or to escape punishment ? There 
never was a more abominable maxim in trade than "Caveat 
emptor," and it will be far better to teach a child in its earliest years 
tbat the motto of a true merchant should be honesty, truthfulness and 
plain dealing with one's neighbour. A great advantage, too, to the 
cause of education generally, will be the partial if the not complete 
substitution of the living for the dead languages, the application of 
arithmetic to the transactions of actual trade, and the study of the 
productions of different climes in their natural as well as in their 
manufactured state, inasmuch as they will lend an attractiveness to 
school hours which they do not at present possess. Indeed, every 
consideration and all the cii'cumstances and changes in modern 
civilised life call for an improved course of instruction as a pre- 
paration for a mercantile career, and none will be rendering a greater 
service to their country than those merchants and others connected 
with our trade and manufacturing industries who employ their 
means and influence to secure so desii'able an object. 



I ^ 



PAET IX. 

THE EDUCATION AND STATUS OF WOMEN. 

The task has been deputed to me to treat of the status of women 
in civilised countries, as illustrated by their condition in France, 
England, and America, and to show in what degree the material 
improvement thereof is related to the progress of education. If by 
education High Schooling is meant, there would not be much to say 
in regard to France, the Camille See law for girls' secondary instruc- 
tion only dating from 1880. This law will doubtless, when looked 
back to by future generations, mark a new, and there is room for 
hoping, glorious epoch in French national hfe. But up to its date 
French women owed little to school tuition, and a good deal to their 
personal ambition, mothers' wit, sprightliness, grace, persevering 
courage, and practical good sense. It is a mistake to suppose the 
French woman frivolous. She is practical in taking the world as 
she finds it. When a small class of idle men held the all -power, 
they did not want helpmates, but amusing mistresses. The demand 
was supplied, and with so much talent that fashionable idlers all the 
world over looked to Paris for hints and ideas when they wanted to 
give zest and elegance to frivolity. Women kept at the head and 
front of French civilisation, and, indeed, of European, until a system 
sprung up of higher education for boys, in which gh^ls had no part. 

But before going further into the subject of education in its 
bearings on the status of women in France, it may be well to glance 
at the place women have held in that country from the earliest 
historical times. 

We find that among the Gallic Celts women were high-hearted, 
intrepid, and the inspirers and helpmates of the men. They helped, 
not becaiise they were forced like Indian squaws in the wigwam, but 
because such was their good pleasure. Having, as Joan of Arc said 
of their high standing, at the coronation of King Charles, helped to 
bear the brunt, it was only right that they should share the reward. 
When the chiefs went to battle, their ladies and hand-maidens 
followed them to, in miry ground, push forward the chariot wheels. 
Savagery had no part in this helpful courage. Gallic female slaves 
in Home were most sought after hj patrician dames to serve as tire- 
maidens, they being deft, tasteful, and inventive. As religious 
martyrs when Christianity dawned, they led the way. Long before 
Saint Blandine's martj^dom, druidesses were venerated as sacred 
beings. Imperial Rome did not counteract in Gaul the race 
tendency of the Celt to place women on the highest social plane, or 
rather to let them rise to their own level. The Boman patrician 



STATUS OF WOMEN. 117 

lady filled a great place in the general Roman life, was mistress of 
her own fortune (save the dotal part), and enjoyed liberty pushed to 
the degree of licence. We may suppose that either the Franks were 
the German tribes which Tacitus best knew, or that the Roman 
historian knew little of the domestic usages of the Germans. That 
Salic law, which the Franks hastened to declare as soon as they 
overran the Gallo-Roman country, does not bear out the character 
which Tacitus gave their forefathers. It was, on the other hand, 
very Gallic of Clotilde at once to turn it. 

Gaul and Rome thus worked to give French women power outside 
laws and constitutions. This power has been used in general to 
embellish national life, and to toughen the moral fibre of the people. 
It went into every national movement, bloomed out in the Mariolatry 
of the middle ages, which bore the fruit of chivalry, and it was 
the cause of the first crusade. All historians, so far as I know, 
overlook this cause. It lay in a Russian princess, the daughter 
of a Byzantine Emperor, being called to wear the crown 
matrimonial of France. Her mother took to Moscow her sacred 
images and relics, and had, we may assume, that yearning for the 
Holy places which became a neurosis of the women of the Lower 
Empire. Long before Joan of Arc, maids, supposed to be in- 
spired, were employed to serve as standard-bearers of French 
armies, and to advise and admonish kings and great nobles. Their 
intuition was believed in. They were called voyantes, or seeresses, 
were deemed heaven-sent, and sacred as long as they remained pure. 
Impure, they were limbs of Satan. There was no prejudice in 
ancient France against the foreign woman. Blanche of Castille was 
submitted to, and waged successfully a seven years' war against the 
vassals of the crown. She was the first female Regent, and had 
common traits with Isabella of Castille, who is to be the tutelary 
divinit}^ of the next Universal Exhibition in the United States, 
because the American ladies so desire. 

Three women, Yolande, Queen of Sicily, Duchess of Anjou, and 
Countess of Provence {nee Princess of Lorraine), Agnes Sorel, and 
Joan of Arc, fill the reign of Charles VII. Yolande had the strongest 
political head of her time, and despised no means, however humljle, 
to compass her ends, one of which was to make her son-in-law Charles 
the overlord of the King of England. Anne of Beaujon, her great 
granddaughter, inherited her brains, and ruled with a gentle temper 
and a firm hand through the minority of Charles VIII. Feminine 
influence was not brilliantly asserted in the reign of Louis XII., but 
Anne of Brittany, an obstinate little woman, took her head never- 
theless. Francis I. was a ladies' man, all deference for his mother, 
whose vices he overlooked, fixing his eyes only on her statesman-like 
capacities, and loved with tender and admiring, though a selfish and 
exacting affection, that Pearl of Pearls, his sister Margaret. A 
maxim of Francis's was that a court without ladies was like a spring 
without flowers. Clouet's portraits show how the riches of the east, 
of Genoa, Venice, and the Low Countries were lavished on the dress 
of those who held a high social status in the reign of Francis. Their 
head-light was great for the time. There was a Ladies' Peace, which 



Ii8 STATE EDUCATION. 

delivered Christendom from the evils of war, and the king from 
captivity. The Higher Learning was first brought into fashion by the 
fair negotiators of this peace — a fashion which spread to England, 
and directed the early growth of Queen Elizabeth's mind, and 
indirectly her reign. Grand ladies were as proud of their manuscript 
editions of Greek and Latin authors as of their jewels. Even those 
who devoted themselves to the king's pleasure had choice libraries. 
The wreckage of Diane de Poitiers, which has come down the 
stream of time to our day, is keenly hunted after by bibliophiles. 
Diane's mental culture explains why she was first in the exercise of 
power through two reigns. A woman of beauty and of mind is not 
to be toyed with like a doll and then cast aside. 

Catherine de Medici, the Lady Macbeth of French history, was 
not worse than her age, and had a theory of government which she 
steadily kept in view, and which in after ages enabled France to 
withstand the German Empire. National unity, as opposed to the 
feudalism of the Guises and Montmorencies, and the federalism of the 
South and of the Protestant nobles, was her objective. This foreign 
woman was uppermost in two reigns and in the part of a third. 
Her only serious rival in her long widowhood was another foreign 
Princess, Mary Stuart. They were both women of great mental 
parts. Mary had brilliancy, beauty, and superior birth, the Medici 
in the recollection of old people in Catherine's time having been 
dealers in quack medicines, and having made most money, like all the 
druggists of the Middle Ages, as dealers in la poudre de succession. 

Gambetta was fond of following the bright trace women left in all 
ages in French history. He maintained that they in all cases owed 
their power to their personal efibrts. The great merit of French- 
men was in Gambetta's estimation having recognised these efi"orts. 
Madame de Sevigne was the letter-writer, we know her because her 
girlhood was serious, and she faced trouble in a brave spirit, burying 
herself for years at a time in the wilds of Brittany to be the steward 
of her youthful son's estate. Her pastimes were country work, 
reading, meditation, and correspondence. Madame de Maintenon 
was raised to wifehood with the King, for being of a cultivated 
mind, sagacious, and mistress of herself under all circumstances. 

The first attempt to give regular school instruction to girls of 
high family was made by Saint Marie de Chantal, grandmother of 
Madame de Sevigne, in the foundation of the Visitandines Convents. 
But there being no body of trained teachers, not much was to be 
learned in the schoolrooms of these houses. Catechism, reading, 
writing, enough of mythology to understand the great painters, 
dancing, curtseying, and fancy needlework, were thought enough for 
the culture of young minds which, however, might have run to weed, 
but were not warped. Madame de Maintenon and her friend Arch- 
bishop Fenelou' deplored the uneducated state of women of quality 
in their time. The former (as Gambetta liked to remind his friends 
when he made up his mind to help forward a scheme for higher 
education for girls) made educational experiments at temporary 
schools which she set up and directed herself in those hours which 
she was able to steal from the King. These trials encouraged her 



STATUS OF WOMEN. 119 

to found St. Cyr for 250 daughters of poor and noble families. 
Her plan of education was solid, and did not exclude brilliant 
accomplishments. What should we now think were Lord Tennyson 
to write a religious drama meant to elevate taste and feeling, 
strengthen faith and refine diction, and cultivate the sweet voices of 
the young, for Girton, and Her Majesty and the Royal Family 
to go and see the students play it. Tliis is what Racine did for 
St. Cyr, where the King and Court witnessed the first represen- 
tations of " Esther," with its lovely canticles, and of " Athalie." 
Limits of age were from ten to seventeen, and the outgoing pupil 
received a slender dowry, which her education helped her to turn to 
account. Reading, writing, arithmetic, mythology, history, geo- 
grapli}', dancing, music, singing, and drawing, were taught. Senior 
pujuls were expected to wash and dress the little ones, and mend 
and make for them, the mistresses and servants to keep house 
accounts, and take turns in the kitchen, laundry, and in floor- 
scrubbing. Lafayette's mother graduated at St. C3^r. Eliza, the 
only sister of Bonaparte whose head was not turned by rising to a 
throne, was brought up there also. Napoleon found at St. Cyr his 
model for daughters of Knights of the Legion of Honour. 

Under the Ancient Monarchj'^ ladies of illustrious birth only were 
on view as governing influences. Rousseau seems, towards the 
Revolution, to have quickened the middle-class womanhood of the 
country and raised them to a higher state of feeling, and to nobler 
ambition. We find proof of this in Madame Roland's life, and the 
diary kept by Lucille Desmoulins before her marriage. Later, 
under the spur of misery, the labouring-class women burst out and 
precipitated the Revolution. Moved by pity, vanit}', and a longing 
for quiet after the storm, the women of Thermidor hastened 
reaction. Both classes were ignorant. But absolute ignorance 
was less unfavourable to the feminine status than the semi-instruc- 
tion given since 1815 in the high-class convents. The former did not 
twist the female mind and place it out of touch with those of the 
other sex. 

On the morrow of the Reign of Terror Bonaparte wrote to 
his brother: "Women alone deserve to govern here. The men 
have no will of their own, and do nothing but what the women tell 
them. They see through the women's eyes, follow their advice, and 
live to please them." Bonaparte followed the crowd for a while in 
seeing through Josephine's eyes. He then made war on all women 
who ventured to have strong ojmiions. Maternal love was sure to 
rise in rebellion against his hecatombs, and so it rose. He said, 
after Waterloo, " I fell because all the women were against me." 

The Constituant, Convention and Legislative, decreed equal civil 
and educational rights to men and women, boys and girls. Two 
churchmen, Tallej'rand and the Abbe Desrandes, who were used to 
the corrupt and uneducated women of rank of the fallen Monarchy, 
thought them delightful. But they also thought it better that tliey 
should not have the power that education secures. Charged by the 
Constituant to draw up a scheme for public instruction, they reported 
that in theory men and women had equal rights, but that in practice 



I20 STATE EDUCATION. 

women served their interests in waiving them. The home was the 
best school for girls, and the mother the best teacher. This doctrine 
was not accepted, and it was proposed to teach girls and boys alike, 
and the former handicrafts suitable to their sex. A decree embodied 
this proposal. The Legislative ordered another report on public 
schools ; Condorcet was the reporter. He recommended for both 
boys and girls secondary State schools. Lakanel and Carnot 
studied a scheme of national education which should be a prepara- 
tion for the workshop, the farm, the dairy, &c. Wherever there 
was a schoolmaster there should be a schoolmistress. Each school 
was to have a boys' and a girls' division. The technical instruction 
was to be different. War absorbing all available funds, this scheme 
fell through. On founding the Empire, Bonaparte decreed primary 
schools for boys, set apart no money for them, and did not deign to 
notice working-class girls. 

It has been constantly brought against French women of our day 
that they love desi^otism and darkness. This charge is unfair. For 
more than two hundred years there has been a great and continuous 
organised movement, showing itself under different forms, to give 
head-light to boys. The religious orders began it, and kept it up 
until the Eevolution. Ecclesiastics imparted most of the higher 
instruction, and in no narrow or warping spirit. This we may 
deduce from what Voltaire and d'Argenson thought of their pre- 
ceptors. Girls were neglected. Sometimes, if they married men of 
education who treated them well, they picked up more than a gloss 
of scholarship. Madame de Boufflies was an instance. Occasionally 
paternal affection, as in the case of Madame Campan, led fathers to 
be their daughters' tutors. Sometimes girls longed to rise to high 
intellectual consciousness, and educated themselves, as in the case 
of Madame Eoland. Madame de Stael's mental training in girlhood 
was unique, and she was detested by the ladies of the Court for the 
brilliancy of her mind. But there was a general forward movement 
for many generations of boyhood towards the light, while, on the 
whole, girlhood was kept stationary. The mental state of the fair sex 
explains why it was that for every step which French men advanced, 
after the Revolution, the upper class and bourgeois women dragged 
them back another. Napoleon gave France a national system of 
higher instruction for boys. He did nothing beyond the creation of 
three Legion of Honovir schools for girls. 

Napoleon fell. A Court, soured by the hardships of a long 
exile, and hating every work of the Revolution, and of its 18th 
century precursors, took his place. All Jaj^ teachers were obliged 
by a law passed under Louis XVIH. to undergo test examinations 
of capacity, and to obtain at them diplomas. The examination 
standards were high. At the first blush this would seem a public 
benefit. But it was merely intended to throw education into the 
hands of the religious orders, who at once began to spring up. 
Members of sisterhoods had only to show certificates of obedience 
to a Superior in setting up to teach, to be dispensed from showing 
diplomas. They soon swarmed. Laics were kept out of the 
field by the close combinations into which the convents entered 



STATUS OF WOMEN. I2I 

with each other. Few, also, were the rewards offered to the lay 
schoohnistress, and the cost of preparing a girl for a teacher's 
diploma fell heavy on her family. Conventual schools unaer 
the old monarchy did not give feminine education a polemical 
bias. Submission to the Catholic Church and monarchy were taken 
for granted, and young minds were not influenced for or against 
political institutions. It was far otherwise after 1815. In the reign 
of Louis Philippe there was no primary State instruction for girls. 
M. Guizot, who venerated his mother, and had a blue-stocking wife, 
attempted, in bringing in his bill for primary instruction, to 
endow ever}' commune with a boys' and girls' school. But he was 
only able to legislate for the boys. The Queen, a Neapolitan 
Princess, was devout according to the manner of her country. She 
was secretly brought round to oppose the bill, which was greatly 
docked in the clauses that dealt with boys' schools, whilst those 
dealing with girls were suppressed altogether. The King, in his 
Cabinet Council, said to his ministers, " Gentlemen, whatever you 
do, don't make me quarrel with my wife." The device hit upon to 
cover the retreat of M. Guizot was want of money. Just the same 
amount was voted for boys' schools that had been granted as an 
appanage to the Duke of Orleans. All such schools in 1833 were 
dens, and nests of contagious diseases. As to High Schools for 
girls nobody dreamt of them at that date. Protestant families sent 
their daughters to Lausanne, which became a sort of collegiate town 
for women. Catholics relegated theirs to convents, of which, touching 
some points, much good should be said, and will be said further on. 

On a highly educated German Princess, Helena of Mecklenburg- 
Schwerin, being placed by her marriage with the Duke of Orleans 
on the highest step of the French throne, women of means began 
to feel ashamed of their ignorance. Her mind was steeped in what 
was best in the literatures of Germany, France, and England. She 
was pensive, and sought to rise above the flatness of Court life 
through intercourse with Victor Hugo, Guizot, Michelet, Cousin, 
and would, if she had dared, have brought Edgar Quinet into her 
circle. From this she was debarred by the agitation to which his 
lectures at the College of France gave rise among the Clergy, and 
the consequent suspension of them. Quinet was a man of a religious 
soul, and it might be said of the Duchess of Orleans as Madame de 
Stael said of Schiller, " elle avait la nostalgic du del." 

A Madame Bachellery, a protegee of M. and Madame de Lamar- 
tine, was the first to awake to the need of a high class of schools 
taught by laics for girls. She set up a day-school, in which she 
was aided b}' all the illustrious men of liberal minds who took an 
interest in educational questions. Her staff of professors caused 
her house to be nicknamed by her friends " Le Petit College de 
France." Omnibusses were chartered by her to fetch pupils to and 
from the classes. She originally planned the high schools now 
existing under the Camille See law, and wanted Lamartine and 
Carnot to turn the Chateau and Pare de Monceau into a normal 
school for high-class governesses. The reactionist press attacked 
her, and she ultimately fell. But imitators arose. Pensionnats, 



122 STATE EDUCATION. 

where out-door pupils were taken in, sprang up, as did also classes. 
However, the courses were not of a kind to nourish, strengthen, and 
beautify j^oung intellects. History was a mere dictionary of dates 
and names, and dealt, unless in the upper classes, entirely with 
France. In the geography classes, a general sketch of the world 
was given. But when details were to be gone into, they were re- 
duced to a list of French watersheds, rivers, chief and county towns. 
Occasionally a Professor who was moved by a love of young souls 
put life into these dry bones, and awoke and nourished mental 
faculties in his pupils. The late M. Eichard Cortambert was one 
of these teachers, who seemed to have a mission from on high. A 
M. Alvarez Levy founded also classes on which there was an extra- 
ordinary run, he having perfected the dry bones system, using it 
successfully to coach young girls wanting to obtain teachers' 
diplomas, or to give others the means, without much learning, to 
pass off for having a great deal. A generation of mere parrots were 
turned out in these classes. Families who were not Voltairian, 
Jew, or Protestant, continued, when at all rich, to send their girls 
to convent boarding-schools. The convents stood in vast gardens. 
That of La Delivrande, near Caen, had a plaj^ground of twenty 
acres. The park -like garden of Les Oiseaux, in the Rue de Sevres, 
in Paris, was nearly as large. Les Dames Augustines, at E.oule, 
Le Sacre Coeur, in the Faubourg St. Germain, were as well provided. 
Schoolrooms and dormitories were scrupulously clean, lofty, well 
lighted. Infirmaries were faultless. The staffs of teachers and 
monitresses being numerous, and free from cares as to what they 
should eat and drink, and how they should pay rent and taxes, 
came to their class-room and other duties unjaded. Manners and 
deportment were carefully attended to : the best bred nuns were 
the monitresses for recreation hours. Eespect for all that it was 
agreed was to be respected was taught by precept and example. 
A kind of emotional piety, closely associated with the rather finical 
prettiness of the chapel, was inculcated. The world was described 
HS a horrible place where bad passions raged. Self-reliance was 
not a plant to grow in these warm conservatories. 

In 1848 a few eminent women and MM. Hyppolite, Carnot (father 
of the President), Barthelemy, Saint-Hilaire, and Jules Simon took 
up the questions of primary education for girls and of the reform of 
primary schools for boys. Their idea was to combine the school 
with industrial apprenticeship, and to render attendance obligatory 
and gratuitous. A boys' and girls' school was to be set up in every 
commune with 800 inhabitants. The law was nearly passed when 
Prince Louis Napoleon was elected President. He, wanting the help 
of the clergy to make himself emperor, shelved it; and so the women 
of the masses were consigned to ignorance until M. Duruy arose 
nineteen years later. One great work, however, was accomplished 
in that interval, and by the group which was with M. Carnot in 
1848, namely, the creation in Paris of technical schools for girls, 
where a high-class of primary instruction is given, and technical 
education for many handicrafts, arts, and trades. The creating 
spirit of these schools was a Madame Lemonnier, the daughter of a 



STATUS OF WOMEN. 123 

South of France pastor and wife of a Saint Simonien lawyer. She 
was a high-strung being, filled with an enthusiasm which never 
became the wildfire of zeal. In one respect she was a Saint 
Simonien. It was borne strongly upon her mind that the move- 
ment to enfranchise women must come from themselves, and that 
they must be prepared for it by an education which would make 
them self-reliant, useful, and cajjable of enjoying the things of the 
mind. There are now three of these schools in Paris. The 
Empress Frederick, as German Crown Princess, found in them a 
model for her Victoria and Sophia Schools at Berlin. For nearly 
a quarter of a century they have been turning out about 500 pupils 
yearly, armed at all points for life's struggle. Few of these young 
women have been unsuccessful in any of the careers for which they 
were specially prepared, and in which they command the market. 
Business houses are on the watch to pick up girls educated in 
these schools, to keep books, direct commercial establishments, 
make dresses and mantles, underclothes, cut-out, embroider, 
engrave on wood, paint from nature for industrial j)urposes, paint 
glass, porcelain, and design for textile manufactures. Thorough- 
ness is the aim of the mistresses, who are directed by a committee 
of ladies, some brilliant, all practical, and several filling great 
positions. They are aided with a consulting committee of eminent 
scientists, traders, and artists, who look closely to the work done in 
the school, and give help in opening new channels for activity. 

These schools Avere begun with a fund collected little by little and 
day by day by Madame Lemonnier, who spent twelve years gathering 
it. Her heart burned within her, and she communicated her sacred 
fire to those whom she recruited. She seemed a being in whom 
there was no dross. Born a sweet poetess, all her poetry in her 
mature years went into beneficent action. She sought neither 
personal profit nor glory, and died just as she began to realise 
that the great idea and work of her life was no mere dream of an 
enthusiast. Her schools have been liberally patronised by the 
Jews, to whom the}^ owe a yearly income, taking the form of sub- 
scrij)tions, of about .£3,000, for they are not yet self-supporting, 
though in a fair way to become so. Their most active patronesses 
are Mesdames Jules Simon, Floquet, wife of the Speaker of the 
House of Deputies, Manuel, wife of the poet who sings in heart- 
awakening verse the trials of the poor, the joys of honest family life, 
the happiness of guiding one's actions according to duty, and the 
loveliness of justice, human brotherhood, and kindliness towards all 
Grod's creatures. 

Boys' schools of every degree, kept by religious brotherhoods, were, 
in regard to pedagogic education, far above nuns' schools, low and 
high. This was due to young men having to start out in life in 
callings and professions to which ignorance would have been a bar. 
They had to pass test examinations for the civil service, enter 
cadets, engineering, polytechnic schools, also through examinations. 
Besides, the teaching brotherhoods were subject to the competition 
of the Lyceums, which stirred them up. While the sons of rich 
liberal and reactionary families were being educated according to a 



124 STATE EDUCATION. 

high standard, the daughters were being trained, how, I have 
ah'eady shown. In good society thirty years ago, in consequence 
of this divergence in the education of the two sexes, a great chasm 
began to yawn between them. In drawing-rooms, ladies were as 
much isolated from gentlemen as if they were in a Turkish seraglio. 
A man of sense could hardly, with any pleasm'e to himself, converse 
with a " well-educated " lady. Her mind bristled with small and 
touchy prejudices. At soirees the ladies seated themselves, as they 
unfortunately do yet, at one end of the room, where they whispered 
flat gossip or silently scanned each others dresses ; the gentlemen 
standing at the other, solemn as at a funeral. There was no gay 
badinage, no collision of the flint-and-steel sort between masculine 
and feminine minds, no presentation of serious ideas in light and 
graceful forms. When there was not the noisy mirth of vacuity 
there was pretentious dulness. This stagnation was unexpectedly 
disturbed, owing to the following causes. 

About the middle of the sixties the Empress Eugenie wanted, the 
Emperor's health being bad, to prepare her way towards a Kegency, 
and began to take an active part in public affairs. He and she then 
happened to go to an agricultural show at Orleans. The bishop 
and his clergy furbished up their local erudition and scholarship to 
display it before the Empress and her ladies, as in another reign 
they had before the Duchess of Orleans. But what M. Dupanloup 
had to say was, he found, Greek to Eugenie and her fair following. 
His disappointment and ire at not finding them responsive were given 
vent to in a series of articles for Le Correspondent, in which he wrote 
at them. Though not exactly for Equal Rights, he was a Joan of 
Arcist, and could not endure ladies not learned enough to seize 
the classical and historical allusions with which he studded his con- 
versation. M. Duruy came about this time into ofl&ce as Minister 
of Public Instruction. He had lost the idol of his life, an only 
daughter, with whom he was one in heart, thought, and all the 
knowledge she had acquired from him. M. Duruy felt like 
Jeremiah lamenting over Jerusalem as he realised, in the grand 
world to which he was admitted, to what a degree the sexes lived 
apart, and how mischievous, from ignorance and a mind- distorting 
education, the power the fine ladies still exercised had become. 

Below, things were almost as bad. Statistics showed that three- 
fourths of the women felons and misdemeanants did not know how 
to read and write. There was not among them, from 1850 to 1860, 
a single woman who had received a good education. Whilst the 
number of illiterate men had decreased at the rate of 103 per 1,000, 
the ratio of diminution, notwithstanding all the schools of Saint 
Marie, was only 49 per 1,000. Out of 1,200 women tried for infant 
murder, but six knew how to read, write, and cast up accounts. In 
the west and central departments the proportion of illiterate women, 
many of whom could not read the clock-dial, had remained what it 
was in 1848, when M. Carnot made his educational census, namely, 
from 794 to 895 per 1,000. The advance, as shown at the uni- 
versal exhibition of 1867, of Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and 
even Austria through the school, came home to the Imperial 



STATUS OF WOMEN. 125 

Government. M. Duruy took advantage of all this, and of the 
anger of the Empress at finding herself written at by the Bishop of 
Orleans, to advance the cause he had at heart and on his brain. 
He decided that Mile. Daubie was to be given the University B.A. 
degree for which she qualified six years before, cai'ried a law obliging 
every commune of 500 inhabitants to open a primary school for girls, 
and taught according to the wish of each commune by laics or 
Sisters. Women and girls were admitted by his order to the 
Sorbonne lectures, to which the Empress sent her nieces, and 
classes for higher instruction were opened for girls in the chief 
county and other towns where there were Schools of Faculties and 
Lyceums, the professors of which were to teach at them. It became 
hon genre to go to the Sorbonne, where M. Caro lent grace and other 
charms to moral jihilosophy, and M. Paul Albert awoke a thirst for 
history and classic literature. But in the provincial towns the new 
classes met with violent hostility. Parish priests and vicars stood 
at the lecture-room doors to make lists of the young girls who went 
in or out, and put them and their families under a ban. An order 
came from Bome for the Bishop of Orleans, who was " the father of 
the mischief," to eat his words, and he explained them uway. The 
Empress took her nieces from the Sorbonne, and M. Duruy was dis- 
missed. In 1870 his provincial classes had, in all but 14 Republican 
towns, died out. But they were so missed by the women who attended 
them as chaperons, and the young girls, that on the Camille See 
law being passed in 1880, the great county and manufacturing 
towns asked to co-operate with Government in creating Lyceums 
for their girls. 

There was a hard fight in the Senate over this law, in favour of 
which were MM. Henry Martin, Carnot, Jules Simon, St. Hilaire, 
Pressense, Schcielcher, and De Freycinet. Gambetta was its fervent 
advocate publicly and privately. He disliked the company of 
women who were insensible to the ideas that rolled from him with 
splendid richness when he talked at the table or fireside of a friend. 
The women-writers of France, De Sevigne, De Maintenon, Boland, 
De Stael, Sand (when she described country life and landscapes), and 
Louise Ackermann, gave him the most pleasure. He never enjoyed 
living in the south of France, because women did not go Avith their 
husbands to the cafes, and were not in companionship with men. 

Whatever may be the final result on France of the uprise of the 
race which M. Drumont hates, the advance made by women within 
twenty years could not have been as rapid as it has been since 1880 
without Jewish help. That help was strenuous and practical. If, 
as M. Drumont believes, the Jews want to ruin France, they have 
worked hard, in the matter of education, to secure to French 
Gentiles the advantages to which they themselves owe the power 
that they exercise. Jews and Protestants form a small minority of 
the whole French population. The great situations both fill are 
out of all proportion to the numbers of these communities. This 
is because they lost no educational advantage, and were ready to 
take the Republican tide. The Protestants are not as rich as the 
Jews, but are more to the front as occupants of high places. Both 



126 STATE EDUCATION. 

have co-operated heartily in all questions that touch the advance- 
ment of puhlic instruction. A Jew of rare personal distinction, 
M. Camille See, is the author of the law under which France has 
twenty-seven girls' high schools, and will soon have thirty-six — a 
law that Belgium has copied. It was elaborated by M. Jules Simon, 
a Jew on his father's side of the house, by MM. Cohn, the Poet 
Manuel (Jews both), Zevort, Breal, and Greard, Vice Rector of the 
University of France, and biographer of Madame de Maintenon, 
whom he has set right in the eyes of all who have read his pene- 
trating criticism on her time, life, surrounding circumstances, work, 
and writings. 

It was a pity there were not women as well as men on the Grand 
Council of Public Instruction when the courses which are followed 
in the girls' Lyceums were being elaborated. The programmes are 
overcrowded. Too much time must be spent in lessons and pre- 
paration. Madame de Maintenon' s plan of varying class work with 
hard physical work and elegant arts was a healthy one. Short 
hours for class leave time for such variety, and afford rest, without 
which there can be no unconscious cerebration, and, therefore, no 
strong flashes of head-Hght. Nobody more than M. Camille See 
regrets the overcharged programmes. But when women enter the 
Grand Council they will probably reform as he would wish. The 
quality of the teaching leaves nothing to be desired. _ Morals are 
treated as a positive science, growing out of the social needs of 
human beings. Eeligion is taught to pupils of different denomina- 
tions in separate rooms by their priests, pastors, or rabbis. 

Secondary instruction has not yet had time to improve the 
material status of French women, but we may hope that it will 
rapidly improve their condition and speed forward evolution. Girls 
who study in Lyceums generally belong to famihes of good means. 
A fair proportion of poor ones enter on scholarships. Itjs decided 
that, all things equal, women professors are to be preferred to men 
in these establishments, and that in every case the principals are 
to be women. "What is very remarkable is that young gu-ls educated 
in the new secondary schools outstrip young men at the university 
examinations for diplomas— not in Greek and Latin, but m science. 
The girl's mind in the new Lyceums more easily takes in mathe- 
matics and physics than classics, history, and moral science. 
Young women who have striven successfully for medical diplomas 
have been without exception classed as super-excellent by their 
examiners. But the number of French who attend the medical 
schools of Paris is less than that of English, Americans, and very 
much less than the number of Russians. French and foreign 
female undergraduates are admitted to compete at examinations for 
house studentships in hospitals. An Anglo-French young lady, 
Blanche Edwards, was the first to get m. The next was Miss 
Klumke, a Cahfornian, who is counted one of the first among hvmg 
anatomists, and has gone deeper than any one else into the remote 
nervous causes of paralysis. The Town Council of Pans has 
resolved that doctresses are only to be employed (when there are 
enough of them) in the infant and girls' communal schools. A 



STATUS OF WOMEN. 



127 



similar rule has been made concerning the offices in which women 
are emi^loyed in the posts and telegraph department. Infant schools 
are exclusively under female teachers. The communal school- 
mistresses are mostly women of superior parts, and far above the 
schoolmasters of their class. In Paris they are received in the best 
societ}'^, and are well off, though not as well paid as their masculine 
colleagues. These are the relative scales of salaries : — 



Schoolmasters. 



Class. 


Salary. 


Number now- 
employed. 


1st Class 


4,500f. 


42 


2nd 


>> 


4,300f. 


44 


3rd 


)5 


3,700f. 


71 


4th 


>> 


3,300f. 
Under Masters. 


17 


1st Class 


3,000f. 


. 300 


2nd 


> J 


2,700f. 


. 306 


3rd 


>5 


2,400f. 


. 277 


4th 


J J 


2,100f. 


. 285 


5th 


J> 


l,800f. 
Schoolmistresses. 


. 155 


1st Class 


3,800f. 


42 


2nd 


>> 


3,460f. 


52 


3rd 


>» 


3,100f. 


77 


4th 


>> 


2,750f. 
Under Mistresses. 


23 


1st Class 


2,500f. 


. 225 


2nd 


>> 


2,250f. 


. 278 


3rd 


5) 


2,000f. 


. 334 


4th 


5) 


l,750f. 


. 301 


6th 


J) 


l,500f. 


. 175 



Masters and mistresses of all classes and degrees of seniority, who 
are not lodged in schoolhouses, are allowed, according to the dear- 
ness or the cheapness of the neighbourhood where they teach, from 
400f. to 500f for rent. The mistresses, as has been pointed out, 
are not so well off as the masters, and yet they have, in addition to 
the usual pedagogic task, to teach sewing, cutting out, washing, 
clear starching, ironing, and plain cooking. Ten francs a day per 
girls' school is allowed for edibles on which the cook is to demon- 
strate. What she cooks goes to the poorest or "assisted" class of 
children to whom food is given by the City. She and the senior 
girls have also to instruct the junior or "non-assisted" ones 
who bring the materials for their noontide meal, how to dress them. 



128 STATE EDUCATION. 

Sometimes a lesson is given in association, by making out of what 
each brings common dishes. Ten chikiren, sav, have raw eggs. 
"\\ ould they like them in an omelette instead of boiled, or would 
they by combining to buy some rice, milk, and sugar, have a pud- 
ding ? If the eggs are to be boiled the names of the several owners 
are written on them, with, according to the taste of each, the words, 
"well done," "done to a turn," or "underdone," the French for 
which last is haveux. The reason schoolmistresses are paid less 
than schoolmasters is that the latter have votes and can be useful to 
candidates at elections. Political parties are always trying to have 
and to hold the communal schoolmasters, and the Eepublic has 
delivered them in rural districts from all servitude to the Church. 
In Republican places the schoolmistress, if a woman of character 
and pleasant manner, is on a good social footing. In Clerical com- 
munes she is often attacked "behind her back^ and constantly de- 
nounced in anonymous and signed letters to the Boai'd of Public 
Instruction and to the Communal Council. Paris is the heaven of 
the prunary schoolmistress, because of the personal independence 
she enjoys out of school hours, and the social relations she may 
lorm with distinguished people who value usefulness and love the 
fruits of the mind. There is an average of fifty vacancies for school- 
mistresses, upper and under, in the Paris communal schools. The 
candidates this year came to 6,479, and next year there must be a 
great many more. 

Mile. Maria Deraismes, an all-round, strong, brilliant, highly- 
educated, and a wealthy woman, is working to push the law for 
granting civil rights to women through the Senate. She is first 
among the orators of France, deserves to rank as a classic polemist, 
and is hearty, generous, and in all things right minded. This lady 
was carefully educated by her father, and is a well of erudition. 
She holds the Town Council in her hand, and has fo-r her lieu- 
tenants in the Chamber MM. Yves-Guyot, and Clemenceau. A 
thing to recommend her is her freedom from pedantry and small 
vanity. According to statistics with which she has furnished me, 
23,000 women are employed on French railways (1) to signal, (2) as 
junior clerks and to issue tickets, and (3) as senior clerks. The 
Post Office employs 10,000 as clerks, assistant and district post- 
mistresses, not to speak of telegraphists and telephonists. But it 
has lately ruled that daughters of postal functionaries are to be 
preferred. M. Magnan, Governor of the Bank of France, opened 
manj' departments there to women. He says they scent forged 
notes with unerring sureness. There are 200 women clerks there, 
entitled, like the men, to pensions. The Credit Foncier employs 
260, and gives them pension rights. Not a few private banks are 
directed in chief by women. As book-keepers and auditors the}' top 
the market, and are very well paid. "Women buyers only act as 
such for themselves and husbands. Madame Jaluzot made the 
fortune of the Printemps l\y her taste as a buyer of fancy Avares, 
and Madame Boucicaut of the Bon Marche. 

French women who move forward owe a good deal to the example 



STATUS OF WOMEN. 129 

of their American sisters. It stirred them up to see English and 
American and then Russian girls attend the Schools of Medicine, 
■walk the liospitals, live as decent girls should, without chaperons, 
and distinguish themselves at degree examinations. There is long 
headwa}' to make hefore they come up to the daughters of Brother 
Jonathan, who have equal rights at the Bar, in the reporters' gallery 
(of which the entree is still denied to them in " the first Assembly in 
the world " — the British House of Commons), the school, college, 
pulpit, editorial room, and hope soon to have political rights in all 
the forty-two States of the Union. 

Last February, Senator Blair, Chairman of the Select Committee 
to report on a resolution proposing an amendment of the United 
States Constitution, reported in favour of a change favourable to 
woman's suffrage. The committee thought denial of that suffrage 
on a par with negro slavery in its injustice. Unless the United 
States Government should be made and kept Republican by such 
suffrage, the ballot could not accomplish great reforms, nor dis- 
integration in the body jiolitic be checked. Corruption of male 
suft'rage was a well-nigh fatal disease. The ballot was withheld 
from women, whose moral sense, Avhen they are regarded as a mass, 
is far higher than that of the other sex, because men did not wish 
to part with one-half of the governing power. Ignoble and tragic 
catastrophes had engulfed all past Republics, which, without excep- 
tion, denied equal rights. The United States Republic would 
foimder, too, if it kept on being a male Republic. What Senator 
Blair said was needed, was a Republic in which both men and 
women should be free indeed. 

The State of Wyoming has Woman's Suifrage, and Kansas gives 
municipal rights to its women, and finds there is advantage in doing 
so. The cities which have lady Mayors, and town councils that do 
not include a single male member, are the ones in which the whisky 
saloons are on their good behaviour and the town concerns best 
managed. One of the greatest organisations in the world is Frances 
Willard's and Mary A. Livermore's Women's Christian Temperance 
Union. It covers the whole ground from East to West, and nothing 
escapes its vigilance. The three planks of its platform are the 
temperance question, the labour question, and the woman's ques- 
tion. Married ladies joining it are requested to register themselves 
under their own, and not their husband's names. This organisa- 
tion is becoming a school for Avomen journalists. It has its found- 
ling homes, city nurseries, kindergartens, inebriates' reformatories, 
and some of the central unions from which district ones branch, 
have their lady attorneys, and no Sally Brasses either. A Mrs. 
Ada Bitterden is the attorney for the organisation at Chicago. 
The light of legal science for the whole organisation is Leila 
Josephine Robinson, author of " The Legal Rights of Women, and 
the Law of Husband and Wife," a new text-book which already is 
accepted b}' lawyers as an authority. There are mixed guilds and 
women's guilds of art and learning, and there is a social guild 
at Philadelphia where young wage-earners of both sexes meet in 
evenings to follow classes, debate, sing in glees, chorals, and soli, 

VOL. I. K 



I30 



STATE EDUCATION. 



and on Saturday evenings to dance ; Friday evenings are Eleusinian. 
Gentlemen absent themselves because the ladies -want drill exercise. 
The Bryn Mawr University maidens have overflowing biological 
laboratories. Miss Goff, a graduate, is the demonstrator and an 
authority on ferments. Miss Randolph, fellow in biology, has 
lately delivered a lecture which ought to make Sir John Lubbock 
claim her as a sister scientist. The subject is, " Do Animals 
think ? " She and Miss Goff are engaged on special work, the one 
studying the regeneration of lost ijarts, and the other the action of 
drugs on the heart. At Chicago, the young ladyhood have a 
medical college of their own. Scientific ladies in the United States 
have lost none of the charm for which in past ages women were 
mostly valued. If there is a sight on earth which should cause joy 
to a believer in the ever-mounting, ever-widening spiral of human 
progress, it is that of bands of white-robed American girls on degree 
day. Head, firm character, impressionability, are expressed in the 
fair young faces, the mien, the slender figures. Sentimentality has 
been crowded out, but there is no incapacity for sentiment or ideality. 
The most intellectual women in America have been the most 
humane. Mrs. Beecher Stowe wrote her wonderful book because 
she had a wonderful and finely- cultivated mind, and a heart that 
bled at the sufferings of the negro slave. Boston is famous for its 
good works. And what a fidget the Boston woman is about her 
" mind." High intellectual and moral consciousness form the heaven 
to which she is ever soaring. New England spinsters often settle 
down into happy, useful, and dignified old maidenhood. They don't 
marry, because they don't want to, and not from want of asking. 
Ladies all over the United States are coming to the front as 
preachers. Out AVest, there are a number in the pulpits of the 
Unitarian churches, and they are thought the most active and 
progressive ministers there. 

The Eeverend Miss Carrie J. Bartlett, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, 
who has been three years in the ministry, is making Brooklyn forget 
the Rev. H. Ward Beecher. She started in life as a reporter, then 
rose to be assistant editor, in which post she got sick of newspaper 
sensationalism, political intrigues and other uglinesses, and deter- 
mined to devote herself to the pulpit. The churches in Clinton 
Street and Gale's Avenue, Brooklyn, have been lent her by their 
vestries. To judge from her looks, she might be twenty-six, is of 
average height, has a strong, speaking face, large, eloquent eyes, 
and mobile and delicately formed lips. Her voice carries far, is firm 
and under control. The diction is delightful, her articulation being 
distinct, tones well modulated, and those of a finely-organised 
contralto chest and larynx. The gestures are graceful, and she has 
a sculptural hand, elegantly finished at the finger tips. At home in 
the pulpit, and speaking out of the depths of her own emotion, she 
easily sways her hearers. When she preaches, she dresses in a neat 
black silk dress, with box pleats falling the whole way from the back 
of her neck. Since God made roses, and human industry developed 
their beauty, she does not see why she should not wear a cluster of 
them in her corsage when she preaches. Perhaps they might be 



STATUS OF WOMEN. 131 

better on the desk or communion table. The Eeverend Miss 
Carrie Bartlett's central idea is that happiness is in ourselves, 
depending on our view of life in its relations and its bearings. She 
holds the present phase of the world's history to be one rich in 
Divine Grace and influx, and indeed a sacred phase. 

The excellence of the public schools, and the spread of higher 
instruction, are making the American woman fit for everything that 
does not require muscular strength. Fitness is shown in Arts : 
witness Miss Hosmer, Margaret Foley the cameo carver, Miss 
Elizabeth Gardner, Miss Strong, the animal painter, Miss Fanny 
Currey, who is growing famous as a landscape painter, and with 
ease, in modesty and retirement, making quite a fortune. I never 
met, it now occurs to me, a talented American woman artist who 
was not quite reserved, free from extravagance, tastefully dressed, 
versed in social amenities. The lady lawyer also dresses well. 
Victoria Woodhull and her sister, both great Wall Street operators, 
made conquests after they had made fortunes, of two English 
millionaires, one of whom has an English and the other a Portuguese 
title. Even Mrs. Hetty Green, the richest woman in her own 
right, and in regard to three-fourths of her wealth by her own 
exertions, does not impress one as a disagreeable person. She looks 
motherl}'. The point of a nearly straight nose is just a little sug- 
gestive of hardness, but the eyes are blue and kindly, and she has a 
straightforward manner in which there is no peremptoriness. Mrs. 
Hetty came years ago into a fortune of $9,000,000 after she had 
started out in her present course. She is now worth $40,000,000, 
and is not yet on the downhill slope of middle age. 

Journalism now gives a field to thousands of American women. 
Editors, shorthand and t)"pe-writing clerks, are mostly young ladies. 
Miss Hutchinson, for years the editor of the New York Sunday 
Tribune, the best weekly ];)aper, perhaps, in existence, is one of 
the most accomplished critics of the age. Gail Hamilton, Mrs. 
Blaine's cousin, stands at the top of the American press as "a 
letter-essayist." Syndicates give her any price she chooses to ask 
for articles to be copyrighted. 

To realise how far English girlhood and womanhood have 
advanced since the Social Science Congresses first timidly aired the 
woman's question, one should live a good deal out of England. To 
do so has been my fate. Whenever of late years I returned there, 
my breath was almost taken away by the speed with which this 
question had advanced to many solutions. In France, "the cause " 
is held back by the habit of intrigue contracted by French middle- 
class women since the First Empire in overcoming the difficulties 
of their position. No men are more respectful than the French 
towards well-conducted women or girls. But none are more quick 
to take a bad advantage of levit}^, or a taste for gallant intrigue. 
Women are shut out from many advantages for this and no other 
reason. They are recognized as art critics, and Madame Eouvier 
had a permanent seat in the gallery of the Chamber as a press 
woman. But railway boards refuse them free passes. In England 

K 2 



132 



STATE EDUCATION. 



there is a different state of mind. There is also greater candour 
and good faith in the British than in the French mind, which 
is often apt to he cynical, and to bow rather to routine than to 
what is fair. Maria Deraismes and Louise Michel are the only 
women in France ready to go on political platforms to address 
meetings. Mrs. Gladstone, Lady Sandhurst, I^ady Dilke, Lady 
Carlisle, Mrs. Ashton Dilke, Mrs. Ormeston Chant, Mrs. Lahou- 
chere, Miss Cohden, Lady Aberdeen, who is all grace, goodness, and 
a rock of sense, and many others of light and leading, have come 
forward as public speakers. Nobody since Wesley has so leavened 
the poor inhabitants of English towns as Mrs. Booth of the Salva- 
tion army. The' philanthropy of Elizabeth Fry was wondered at 
in her time, and justly. I doubt whether she worked such wonders 
as Mrs. Percy Bunting, whose modesty prevents fame from finding 
her out. Mrs. Amos, Miss Clementina Black, Mrs. Price Hughes 
and her band of '' sisters " are an angelic influence in the horrible 
parts of London, raising the weak and fallen, inspiriting to better 
effort, showing what may be done by organisation and by doing one's 
best. Nor should Mrs. Besant be passed over. She is right-minded 
and true hearted. Her work will not be in vain. English women 
have learned to stand together. I had many opportunities of seeing 
the " advanced" ones among them at the Women's Congresses held 
last year in Paris. Some of them were successful as agreeable women 
at the soirees given in honour of these congresses by members of the 
French Government and the Prefect of the Seine. Miss Balgarnie, 
a straightforward, unaffected, soft-mannered and handsome girl, a 
Una who might lead any lion, tamed or otherwise, represented an 
association to obtain the political franchise for British women. I 
never spent more enjoyable days than at the Universal Exhibition of 
last year with her and some of the distinguished consoeurs who came 
over for congresses with her. Doctors Kate and JuHa Mitchell, the 
incomparably beautiful Madame Anna de Eitzius of Stockholm, were 
in the company, with Mrs. Magnusson, who is likely to become the 
Elise Lemonnier of her native Iceland. 

These are a few thoughts regarding the education and status of 
women, as they occur to one of themselves, in three of the most 
highly civilised countries in the world. Intellectually, Woman may 
be said, even more than Man, to be in her infancy ; but when it is 
considered how the growth of her mental faculties has been stunted, 
and how in past times in Europe, as even now in Eastern lands, she 
was regarded as an inferior being, and by some denied the possession 
of a soul, it is marvellous that in the course of a few years she 
should have advanced by leaps and bounds, until she has proved 
herself the equal of Man in some, as she may one day prove herself 
his superior in many departments of human knoAvledge. 

Mks. Emily Crawford. 



PART X. 

TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION, AND PAYMENT ON 

RESULTS 



Many circumstances have combined to bring the subject of 
Elementaiy Education prominentl}' under public notice. The 
general demand for Technical Instruction, which is now in a fair 
way towards being satisfied, directed attention to the foundations on 
which all education rests, and showed that the provision of technical 
instruction for artisans depended for its success on the efficiency of 
the preliminary teaching in our primary schools. 

The Royal Commissioners on Technical Instruction, appointed 
in 1881, soon discovered the close connection that existed in all 
European countries between elementary and technical education, 
and that no satisfactory and general scheme of technical education 
could be introduced into this country which did not presuppose 
various alterations and improvements in our sj'stem of elementar}^ 
teaching. In the introduction to their Report they sa}' : " It is 
necessary in order to understand the position of the purely Technical 
Schools, of which we shall have to treat subsequently, that an out- 
line should be given of the system that has been adopted for the 
general education of young people of both sexes, from the com- 
mencement of the school age onwards ; " and, in the concluding 
chapter, are found many important recommendations with respect to 
primary instruction, all of which have received careful consideration, 
but can scarcely be said to have passed beyond the stage of enquiry. 
A general feeling that our Avliole system of elementary teachmg 
required to be remodelled in order to better adapt the instruction to 
the practical needs of artisan life was one of the causes which led to 
the appointment, in 1885, of the Royal Commission of enquiry into 
the working of the education acts ; and although from the constitu- 
tion of that Commission no general agreement could have been 
expected, the recommendations of either section, if adopted, would 
effect considerable improvement in the character of the teaching 
given in our Public Elementary Schools. 

Notwithstanding the imperfections of the Act of 1870, the bene- 
ficial effects of this first attempt to nationalize our education and to 
bring the rudiments of knowledge within reach of all classes of the 
community are generally recognized. But twenty years ago the 
principles of education were not so well understood as they now are ; 
and apart from the difticulties and delays which arose from the 



134 STATE EDUCATION. 

necessity of getting School Boards into working order, of erecting 
new schools and of training efficient teachers, the aims of elementary 
instruction were not clearly understood, and the results of the 
teaching were consequently found to be less satisfactory than had 
been anticipated. 

Children left school able to read and write and do simple sums^ 
but their intelligence had been very little quickened by the instruc- 
tion they had received, and of the knowledge they had gained little 
or nothing remained a year or so after their schooling was over. 
Even the mechanical ability to read and write was partially lost 
through neglect, and the power of using writing as a means of 
expressing thought can be scarcely said to have been acquired. 
The influence of medisevalism, which had moulded all our Secondary 
Schools to one pattern, had stamped its mark upon our elementary 
system of education, and had made the exercise of memory the 
main purpose of instruction. Other circumstances had tended to 
accentuate this position. The system of distributing the Govern- 
ment grant by payment on the results of the examination of indi- 
vidual pupils has had much to do with placing before teachers an 
altogether erroneous idea of the real aim of education. Of this fact, 
I think there can be now no reasonable doubt ; and whilst the Code 
unduly encouraged the teaching of literary subjects, the effect of the 
annual inspection was to intensify the efforts of the teachers to make 
the children remember such facts and phrases as would pay best in 
the examination. In learning to read and write, as in learning 
any other art, in which skill has to be acquired, a certain amount 
of drill is absolutely necessary, but such mechanical methods of 
instruction are of little use in awakening and stimulating the intelli- 
gence of the child. 

Some of our best educational authorities have pointed out that 
the fault of our teaching is that it is too "bookish;" and this 
conclusion has been reached by those who have approached the 
subject along very different and almost opposite lines of enquiry. 
The late Mr. Matthew Arnold knew our schools from within. He 
was familiar with the methods of instruction. He had seen our 
teachers at work, and had tested, time after time, the results of the 
teaching, and his conclusion was that the teaching was " mechanical," 
and did not succeed in adequately developing the child's whole mind. 
In contrasting school teaching abroad and in this country, he tells 
us : " The methods of teaching in foreign schools are more gradual, 
more natural, more rational than in ours, and in speaking of foreign 
schools, I include Swiss, and French schools, as well as German. 
I often used to ask myself, why, with such large classes, the order 
was in general so thoroughly good, and why, with such long hours, 
the children had in general so little look of exhaustion or fatigue, 
and the answer I could not help making to myself was that the 
cause lay in the children being taught less mechanically, and more 
naturally than with us, and being more interested .... The fault 
of the teaching in our popular schools at home is, as I have often 
said, that it is so little formative. It gives the children the power ta 
read the newspapers, to write a letter, to cast accounts, and gives 



TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION. 135 

them a certain number of pieces of knowledge, but it does little to 
touch their nature for good and to mould them." 

Professor Huxley, who examined the question from an altogether 
different standpoint, has arrived at a similar conclusion. Our 
Education, he sa3"S, is too bookish, it appeals too much to the 
memory, too little to the senses and to the reasoning faculties. The 
concurrence of two such authorities, whose training and habits of 
thought would naturally lead them to approach the problem with 
very different educational sjaiipathies, supported as it is by the 
opinions of many other educational authorities, may be considered 
as conclusive. But this testimony receives further confirmation 
from practical men of business, who generally endorse the views of 
Lord Armstrong, that " a man's success in life depends incomparably 
more upon his capacity for useful action, than upon his acquire- 
ments and knowledge, and the education of the young should there- 
fore be directed to the developing of faculties and valuable qualities 
rather than to the acquisition of knowledge." 

The fact is that during the twenty years that have elapsed 
since the passing of Mr. Forster's Act, our ideas of the aims 
and purpose of elementary education, and of the means by which 
they may be attained have undergone a considerable change. It is 
not so much knowledge as the power of acquiring knowledge and the 
means of developing the faculties of observation, which we expect 
education to confer upon us. This shifting of our position is due to 
a truer recognition of the real object of school training, and has been 
assisted by a comparison of foreign methods of instruction with our 
own. During the last ten years, a belief in the defects of our present 
system has been gradually growing, and Code after Code has been 
introduced with the view of indirectl}' improving the course of study 
pursued in our elementary schools. I say, indirectly, because all 
new regulations necessarily operated through the measure of the 
amount of grant they produced. In too many cases the aim of 
managers and teachers has been to secure, not the most efficient and 
useful instruction for the children, but the largest amount of 
Government grant. The importance of Science-teaching as a means 
of training the observing faculties, and of affording useful know- 
ledge has long since been recognized ; but nothing has hitherto been 
more unsatisfactory than the failure of payments on results to 
encourage Science-teaching in our schools. Owing to the fact, that 
the grant on Geography, as a class subject, was equal to that on 
Science, and that geography was more easily taught, there has been 
an actual falling off" in the number of children who have been pre- 
sented in Science. 

The number of schools, or departments of schools, which have 
taken Science as a class subject has decreased from 51 in 1883-4 to 
86 in 1887-8, and if we look to the statistics showing the number ot 
children examined in any branch of Science as a specific subject we 
find the results equally unsatisfactory. From the following table, 
prepared by Dr. Gladstone,* it will be seen that whilst the number 01 

* Journal of Society of Arts, Nov, 29th, 1889. 



1^6 



STATE EDUCATION. 



children taking Science lias fallen in the five 3"ears ending 1888 from 
82,965 to 79,985, the number of children in the Standards V., YI., 
and VII., in which the subject might have been taught has increased 
during the same period from 286,355 to 472,770, and very note- 
worthy are the decreases in such subjects of practical application 
as Animal Physiology, which underlies the laws of health, and 
Magnetism and Electricity, a knowledge of Avhich in various in- 
dustries is every day becoming more and more important. 



Specific Subjects — Children. 


1SS2-3. 


1SS3-4. 


lSS-l-5. 


1S85-6. 


lSSG-7. 


1SS7-S. 


Algebra .... 


26,547 


24,787 


25,347 


25,393 


25,103 


26,448 


Euclid and Mensuration . 


1,942 


2,010 


1,269 


1,247 


995 


1,006 


Mechanics . . . . 


2,042 


3,174 


3,527 


4,844 


6,315 


6,961 


Animal Physiology . 


22,754 


22,857 


20,869 


18,523 


17,338 


16,940 


Botany . . . . 


3,280 


2,604 


2,415 


1,992 


1,589 


l,i-98 


Principles of Agriculture . 


1,3.57 


1,859 


1,481 


1,351 


1,137 


1.151 


Chemistry 


1,183 


1,047 


1.095 


1,158 


1.488 


1.808 


Sound, Light and Heat . 


630 


1.253 


1.231 


1,334 


1,158 


918 


Magnetism and Electricity 


3,643 


3,244 


2,864 


2,951 


2,250 


1,977 


Domestic Economy . . 
Total 


19,582 


21,458 


19,437 


19,556 


20,716 


20,787 


82,965 


84,499 


79,774 


78,477 


78,122 


79,985 


Number of Scholars in\ 
Standards v., VI., VII. J 


286,355 


325,205 


352,860 


393,289 


432,097 


472,770 



According to our present system, it is the grant-producing quality 
of the subject rather than its practical usefulness or its educational 
value that determines the extent to which it is taught in our public 
elementary schools. There is no doubt that the Code of 1889, which 
was introduced into Parliament and withdrawn, would have tended 
to remove many of the defects of the S3'stem of which we continue to 
complain. The new Code about to be introduced will certainly be 
an improvement on any previous code, and will further tend to 
encourage the teaching of Science, Drawing, and Manual Exercises. 
But how will this be effected ? B}^ making the pecuniary grant suffi- 
cient to induce schools to teach these subjects. The regulation 
requiring Cookery to be taught in girls' schools, as a condition of 
paying a grant for Drawing, maybe withdrawn, and girls showing an 
aptitude for Art may be allowed to learn Drawing without occupying 
their time with Cookery. The teaching of Science may be 
encouraged by placing it in a more favoured position as regards 
grant than other subjects. Freedom may be given to school autho- 
rities to introduce the teaching of subjects for which there exists a 
local demand, without incurring pecuniary loss, and Manual Train- 
ing may be recognized as a part of jorimary education. But when 
all these alterations are made, the curriculum of our schools will be 
determined by that selection of subjects which will produce the 
maximum of grants, without any necessary reference to the capa- 
bilities of the pupils or the requirements of the localit}-. The 
commercial element will continue to enter into the consideration of 
every change in the subjects of instruction. Can it be right that 
the character of the course of studv shall be determined bv these 



TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION. 137 

monetaiy calculations ? Members of School Boards and managers of 
elementary schools are well aware of the extent to which this com- 
mercial consideration affects the teaching. Not onl}'- is the 
course of instruction the product of careful calculations which 
have for their object the securing of the greatest possible amount of 
grant, but the teachers themselves keep this object in view in all 
their lessons. Each class must yield its maximum number of passes. 
There can be no doubt that so much reason as existed in the cry 
against " over-pressure " was due to this cause. The effect of all 
examinations in merely acquired knowledge is to obscure somewhat 
the true aims of teaching ; but when the income of the school partly 
depends on the results of such examinations, their effect in this 
direction is necessarily more marked. AVhen we are told b}' the 
most competent authorities that the teaching is mechanical, that it 
ai^peals to the memo'y rather than to the understanding, that it is 
" so little formative," and when we know, that in many schools, read- 
ing is taught so as to secure fluency on the part of the pupil without 
regard to the meanirg of the words read, that answers to questions 
in history are too often a jumble of phrases, that in other subjects 
verbal accuracy is secured at the expense of intelligent thought, one 
cannot help feeling that undue stress is laid on the results of the 
examination, which controls, instead of merel}^ guiding, the teaching. 
Various modifications of the Code have been suggested, and some 
have been adopted with the view of remedying these evils. The 
examination of classes has been partly substituted for that of indivi- 
dual pupils. A general merit grant has been added to the other 
numerous sources of revenue. The instructions to inspectors have 
been issued with the greatest care, and with the evident desire that 
the examination should test ability and intelligence rather than 
acquired knowledge, but all this availeth nothing whilst the mercan- 
tile spirit pervades the atmosj^here of the school-room, and the Code 
under which the teachers work, reads like a price-list of pieces of 
knoAvledge. He who knew the real worth of that instruction which is 
truly formative of character tells us that "it is more to be desired 
than gold, Yea, than much fine gold ; " but the Code duly assesses 
its value in current coin. Only recently-, the " A ssociation for the pro- 
motion of Technical and Secondary Education " has issued to its 
members some suggestions for the new Code of 1890. The objects 
aimed at by these suggestions are excellent ; but how are they to be 
attained ? By making higher pecuniary bids for the teaching of 
those subjects, which in the ojjinion of the Association need to be 
encouraged. " The teaching of Science as a class subject to be 
encouraged in the Upper standards by an additional grant." Alter- 
native courses in specific subjects, "to receive a grant on the same 
principle as the subjects enumerated in Article 15 " of the Code. 
Instruction in the use of simple tools to be introduced in the 
Higher standards, and"r/ra/?/s to he /^afrf thereon." Elementary 
modelling to be taught and " a grant to he made in connection there- 
witb," and so on. Can it be wondered at, that teachers, many of 
whom have been educated under this system, who have served an 
apprenticeship as pupil teachers in these schools, who have been 



I3B STATE EDUCATION. 

trained in Colleges among other students exclusively of the same 
class as themselves, and who have heard the question of the amount 
of grant constantly discussed by those in authority over them, shall 
grow up with a mercenary idea of the true aims of education, and 
shall pursue their high calling under the influence of an inseparable 
mental association between good teaching and large money grants ? 

It would surely seem that the time has come when, instead of 
adding grant unto grant, we should recognise that possibly the 
mechanical teaching of which we complain may be the result of the 
mechanical methods by which its value is assessed. To many it 
may seem that to throw over the system of payment on results would 
be to destroy the foundations on which our national education rests. 
Those who whether as teachers, managers, or inspectors, have worked 
under this system throughout theii' entire life, naturally ask what 
substitute can be suggested for the premiums, now offered, of half- 
crowns and four-shilling pieces for isolated scraps of knowledge in 
different branches of learning. The answer is, no substitute is 
needed. Do the Charity Commissioners dole forth their endowments 
to the governors of secondary schools according to the number of 
pupils who pass the Oxford and Cambridge Locals or any other 
public examination ; or do they make the amount of their contribu- 
tion depend on such results ? I have elsewhere stated : " The 
restrictions under which the elementary schoolmaster works require 
to be relaxed. There is no essential difference between his duties 
and responsibilities and those of the head master of a middle class 
school largely dependent on endowments for support."* The system 
which is found to work well in schools of higher grade would work 
equally well in elementary schools. " What is needed in both cases 
is that the teacher shall be well trained, and that the inspection shall 
be thorough." We have only to attempt to realise the effect of intro- 
ducing payment on results into our secondary schools to recognise 
the full force of the arguments for abolishing it in our elementary 
schools. I venture to prophesy that if all reference to grants for 
special subjects or individual passes were removed from our Code, 
the directions of the Code would be no less faithfully observed than 
they now are, and the character of the teaching would be gradually 
improved. Moreover, if such a new departure could be made, very 
few years would elapse before the staunchest advocates of the 
system would express surprise that it was so long tolerated, and that 
the results were not still more unsatisfactory than they have proved 
to be. There exists a general impression, which the mercantile 
spirit of the Code tends to foster, that teachers are onlj^ kept up to 
the mark \>j the knowledge that the amount of Government grant 
depends on the result of the Inspector's report. So strong was this 
belief for many years, that the Government grant formed part of the 
teacher's salary, and in many places the teachers continue to have a 
share in it. But experience has shown that this particular kind o± 
incentive to painstaking teaching is productive of more harm than 
good, and the system of paying the teacher a fixed salary is now 

* "Industrial Education " (Kegan Paul & Co.), p. 113. 



TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION. 139 

generally preferred ; and where this system has been mtroduced, as 
in the case of the School Board for London, the teachmg is found 
to be improved. But if the teacher's salary is made independent of 
results the main argument in favour of the retention of the payment 
on results loses its force. 

It is the opinion of many of H. M.'s Inspectors, that if they 
were deprived of the power of making the State contribution 
towards the school income depend, to some extent, on the efficiency 
of the teaching as tested by results, their influence in screwing up 
the school to higher excellence would be seriously impaired. But I 
very much doubt whether in actual practice, this would be found to 
be the case. The importance rightly attached to the report and to 
the recommendations of the Inspectors is quite independent of the 
grant-distributing quality with which they are weighted. Indeed, in 
many cases the system works most unfairly, the larger grant being 
withdrawn from a school, which on account of its less efficiency is 
often the more in need of funds. Teachers are not permanent 
institutions : they are liable to dismissal if found incompetent ; and 
sufficient incentive to good teaching, apart from its own stimulating 
effect, is found in the praise or blame they receive on the result of 
the Inspectors' reports. 

But it will be said that whilst " payment on results " might be 
easily abolished in the case of the majority of schools under School 
Board management, the stimulus it affords is needed in the case of 
Voluntary Schools which are under no similar public control. I 
think, however, it may be assumed that what the public really care 
for, is not so much the control of Voluntary Schools as the 
assurance and guarantee that they are thoroughly efficient and 
properly managed. Voluntary Schools, receiving state aid are even 
now subjected by H.M.'s Inspectors to some measure of public 
superintendence. If the inspection is imperfect or inadequate, if it 
is not sufficiently frequent, or sufficiently thorough, to afford the 
guarantee which the public has a right to require, of the efficiency 
of the schools inspected, the remedy lies, not in continuing the 
system of payment on results, which is after all a mere mechanical 
method of testing the efficiency, but in improving and strengthening 
the inspection ; and in this suggestion, I venture to think, will be 
found the looked for substitute for payment on results. 

If gi'ants on results were abolished, schools would be maintained 
as they now are from two or three sources, according as school fees 
are retained or abandoned. The sources of income would be : 
(1) Local Aid, whether in the form of rates or subscriptions, 
supplemented or not by school fees ; and (2) Government Grant. 
What is wanted, is that the Government grant should be a fixed sum 
per unit of average attendance, and that the payment of this sum 
should be independent of results. To secure, and to afford the 
necessary assurance of, efficiency, changes would have to be made in 
our S3'stem of inspection. In addition to H.M.'s Inspectors, who 
would visit each school, as now, and report to the Education 
Department, district Inspectors should be appointed by the School 
Board or other local authority. It would be the duty of the district 



I4C STATE EDUCAJION, 

Inspectors to ^-isit the schools under tlieir charge more frequently 
than they are visited by the Government Inspector, to report to the 
authority appointing them, and to assist the managers and teachers 
in giving effect to the recommendations and suggestions of H.M.'s 
Inspectors. The withdrawal of the Government grant, which would 
lead to the closing of the school, would be the ultimate penalty of 
inefficiencj" ; and it would be better that inefficient schools should 
be closed than that they should continue to be carried on with means 
inadequate to their proper maintenance. It may be, that the managers 
of voluntary schools would resent this further outside interference 
with their work ; but I cannot help thinking that the supporters 
of denominational schools, if they wish to continue to retain in 
their own hands the practical management of their schools, must be 
prepared to give the public some further guarantee of efficiency, 
than is at present afforded by the annual report of the Government 
Inspector. 

In France, the system of inspection is much more developed than 
in this country. "French schools," says a recent writer on the 
subject, " are certainly not under-inspected. They are subject to 
six or seven inspections ; to wit, inspectors-general, rectors and 
inspectors of the academy, primary inspectors, members of the 
Departmental Council (who are not teachers), the maj'or and 
Cantonal delegates (for sanitation) and the medical inspector."* 
In the French system, there are three grades of inspectors ; the 
Primary inspectors, the Academy inspector, and the Inspector- 
General. The Primary inspector has to report on each separate 
€lass, with observations on the condition of the school, the course of 
instruction and suggestions for improvements, and he also reports on 
each teacher. The Academy Inspector, whose duties comprise the 
inspection of all educational institutions in his district, inspects the 
schools to see that the Education Acts are properly carried out. 
He has also " to arrange for the examination of teachers and training 
colleges. It is his business to oppose the opening of a private school 
where, in his opinion, it is undesirable. He also has to undertake 
the censure, reprimand, and provisional susi^ension of unsatisfactory 
teachers. The actual dismissal of a teacher is the duty of the 
Prefet or chief magistrate of the Department. The Academy 
Inspector reports to the Departmental Council of Education, which 
is 3'esponsible for establishing and maintaining schools in the 
Department. The Inspectors-General are few in number and act as 
advisers to the Minister of Education." t 

With the abolition of payment on results, the Education Depart- 
ment would continue to prescribe, through its Code, the course of 
study to be pursued in all elementary schools receiving state aid ; 
and it would be the duty of the Government inspector to see that the 
provisions of the Code are faithfully observed. Within the lines 
laid down by the Code, there should be considerable latitude for the 

* "Elementary Education at the Pnrii Exhibiiion,' by J. G. E)opcr (^Ch^rity 
Oi-fjanisation Revlnc, P^bruaiT, 1890). 
t Ibid. 



TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION. 141 

adaptation of the teaching to local needs ; but it is far better that 
the general character of the instruction should be settled by a 
competent central authority than that it should be left to the caprice 
and independent judgment of different groups of managers or 
teachers. The fund-subscribing public will always look to the fund- 
distributing government for a guarantee that the children receive a 
thorough and serviceable education. 

As regards the Code itself, there is now some approach to 
agreement as to the character of the changes needed to make 
our elementary instruction more practical and more useful. It is 
generally admitted that all boys, from whom our future artizans 
will be selected, should learn linear drawing, and that the teaching 
of freehand and model drawdng should be encouraged both among 
boys and girls, and especially among those wdio show any artistic 
skill. To these, also, modelling in clay should be taught ; but it 
is very undesirable that such instruction, except as a Kindergarten 
exercise, should be given to children, who have no taste for it, with 
the mei-e object of earning a grant. Teachers and managers may 
be trusted to develop the artistic aptitude which any of the children 
in their schools may exhibit, if, without injury to the school income, 
they are free to substitute drawing and modelling for some other 
branch of stud_y, or some other form of manual training. 

On the advantage of instruction in the use of tools, as a form 
of manual training, public opinion is no longer divided. The 
hesitating recommendation of the Commissioners on Technical 
Instruction in their first Rej^iort, followed up by the more decided 
recommendation in their final Report, and supported by the 
strenuous efforts of more than one member of the Commission, 
has resulted in the introduction, with excellent results, of work- 
shop instruction, sometimes under the name of Slojd, into a large 
number of schools. These results have received no encouragement 
by waj' of grants, but they have been none the less satisfactory. 
The experiment tried bj'' the School Board for London, with funds 
supplied by the City Companies, has been sufficiently successful 
to justify its extension. Other School Boards, notably that of 
Liverpool, are now engaged in giving workshop teaching in some 
of the schools under their charge, and many of the voluntary 
schools are adopting it. There is no doubt that children are 
deei:)ly interested in any form of teaching which occupies their 
hand ; and the advantage of manual training as an educational 
discipline consists in this, that it arouses attentiveness, exercises 
the eye in observing accurately, and at the same time stimulates 
thought. Drawing, by itself, is a most useful part of manual 
training, but it needs to be supplemented by some constructive 
work. The experience of the well-known school of the Rue 
Tournefort, Paris, that the time devoted to manual exercises in 
no way interferes with, but rather stimulates, the children's pro- 
gress in other studies has been generally confirmed by the results 
obtained in other schools. Every one now knows, or should know, 
that handicraft instruction in a school is quite distinct from trade- 
teaching in a shop. The methods and the end in view are dif- 



142 STATE EDUCATION. 

ferent. In the school, as well as in the shop, skill is necessarily 
acquired, but in the one it is intelligent, in the other mechanical. 
In the school, the aim is to develop thought b}^ means of hand 
and eye training ; in the shop, the aim is to secure manual dexterity 
only. 

To the French people is undoubtedly due the initiation of this 
important movement in popular education. During the last ten 
years, manual instruction has been gradually introduced into nearly 
all the primary schools of France, and is continued and developed 
in the higher elementary and apprenticeship schools. Student- 
teachers, in French normal colleges, are now required, as a part 
of their training, to take a course of workshop instruction, and 
the most sceptical observer must have been convinced of the value 
of this teaching, by the splendid show of school work at the Paris 
Exhibition. "It is quite safe to say that no such exhibit of 
educational buildings, apparatus, furniture, methods of teaching 
and work accomplished by scholars has ever been seen before," 
writes Dr. Butler of New York. The advocates of manual training 
have had to encounter two classes of objectors : — those who fail to 
see the difference between teaching carpentry as a trade and as 
an intellectual exercise, and those who argue that as the majority 
of children, trained in our elementary schools, will be occupied 
during their whole life with manual pursuits, their too brief school 
life should be devoted to studies that tend to inculcate a love of 
reading, and will afford them useful knowledge. The inspection 
of school children at work under a competent and trained teacher, 
not a mere mechanic, but one who understands the objects and 
methods of manual training, will at once indicate the difference 
between school teaching and trade teaching in the workshop ; and 
the experience already acquired shows that practical instruction in 
woodwork and drawing is not only helpful to a child in his sub- 
sequent work, but enables him to give closer attention to his 
ordinary studies and to derive more real benefit from them. Lord 
Armstrong very justly says: "Except in teaching the art of 
drawing, "no attempt is at present made to educate the hand. 
The adclition of drawing would be a step in the right direction 
and would afford a useful accomplishment, but would not supply 
all that is needed for giving dexterity to the hand. Appropriate 
exercises ought to be devised for cultivating its mobility, pre- 
cision and delicacy in touch ; and, if in so doing, the ability to 
use simple tools were acquired, it would be advantageous in any 
line of life that might be ultimately adopted." * 

Notwithstanding the practice of the school of the Eue Tournefort, 
it is now generally recognized that children should not commence to 
use tools at a very young age, and that the instruction is most profit- 
ably pursued in the 5th, 6th, and 7th Standards. _ To prevent any 
break of continuity in the manual training of the child from the time 
when he leaves the Infant School, some continuation of Kindergarten 
exercises is needed ; and this, it is now suggested to supply, under 

* '•Nineteenth Century," Jane, 1888, 



TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION. 143 

the name of Advanced Kindergarten. A scheme for such mstruction 
has heen carefully thought out by Mr. Ricks, the London School 
Board Inspector, and comprises exercises in paper-work, colour- 
work, cardboard-work, clay-work, and wood-work. These exercises 
continue the Kindergarten teaching, from the time when children 
leave the Infant school, till they are fit to commence workshop in- 
struction. Throughout these exercises drawing is combined with 
construction and design. The children have to make patterns in- 
volving arrangements of form and colour. They construct geometrical 
and other models out of simple materials, and thus combine outline 
ornamentation with the application of colour to design. In this 
way, besides acquiring some skill in constructive work, they learn 
the simple geometrical properties of surface and solid figures, and 
the rudiments of ornamental art. Modelling in clay is a valuable 
addition to such exercises, and one of never-failing interest to chil- 
dren. Mr. Ricks is quite right in saying that " unless the element 
of construction is added, drawing must fail to yield the full measure 
of good which may be expected from it." The hand and eye train- 
ing which this system of Advanced Kindergarten helps to develop, 
affords an opportunity of determining to some extent the taste and 
special aptitudes of the children under instruction, and of ascertain- 
ing which of them might with advantage receive further training 
in drawing and designing. 

Another development of Kindergarten should be in the direction of 
Natural Science, which, by means of object-lessons, should be taught 
throughout the Standards. The failure of the grant system to pro- 
mote sound science-teaching has been alread}' referred to. There 
is little doubt that if the amount of grant no longer depended on 
results, as tested by examination, and if all schools to be accounted 
efficient, and so to receive State aid, were required to give some 
instruction in Science, this blot on our present system would be 
removed. 

It is quite possible, that owing to the consensus of opinion on this 
subject, the new Code may give further encouragement to the teach- 
ing of Science in our schools. But even so, the principle that will 
regulate the selection of subjects, the methods of teaching, and the 
time devoted to it, will be a wrong one. Monetary considerations, 
rather than local needs, will enter into the calculations of most 
school managers. 

If drawing, handicraft, and science, are to be taught throughout 
the Standards, it necessarily follows that time must be found by 
sacrificing some subject of the present curriculum ; and it is, I think, 
generally agreed that the more advanced parts of English grammar 
can best be spared. The children of our working classes will find 
themselves very little, if any, worse off in later life, if during their 
short school course they devote considerably less time to the study 
of the complicated rules for the analysis of sentences. In the hands 
of a good teacher some amount of mental discipline may be evolved 
from lessons on the several forms of the extension of the subject and 
predicate of a sentence, and on the definitions of the different parts 
of speech. But how much of this acquired knowledge will a child 



144 STATE EDUCATION. 

retain a year after he lias left school ? Tt has been fixed in the 
mind by nothing that appeals to the senses. Acquired with great 
difficulty, it is never likely to be applied. It is altogether out of 
touch with the future thoughts, experiences, and occupations of the 
child. The links of association necessary to revive it are not likely 
to exist. Can it be said that such exercises create, — what is most 
desirable, — a love of reading, or even an intelligent appreciation of 
the beauty of the passages that are subjected to this process of 
analysis ? Surely school life is too short to be occupied with 
cumbering the memory with useless freight that will be thrown 
overboard as soon as the child is fairly launched in life. The science 
of education has happily shown that there are other subjects of 
instruction which yield even more mental discipline and are at the 
same time practically useful. Let grammar, then, and, to some 
extent, spelling also, give place to them ! 

If our elementary education is to be reorganised on some such 
lines as I have indicated, a certain definite direction must be given 
to it, which managers and teachers, unfettered by any considera- 
tions of the grant-earning capacit}'' of the scholars, will be required 
to follow. This direction should be indicated by the Code, and it 
would be the duty of the inspector to see that the regulations of 
the Code are duly enforced. The Code should determine the general 
curriculum of the school. It should prescribe the studies and the 
degree of efficiency in each subject, which each standard might be 
expected to reach. It should regulate the division of time between 
practical and other studies, and the time-table of each teacher 
should be approved, as now, by the chief inspector. But, within 
certain limits, considerable freedom as to subjects, methods and 
arrangements should be left to the managers and teachers. The 
Code should assist the managers and teachers by indicating the 
range of progressive lessons in different groups of subjects, from 
which a selection might be made, adapted to the circumstances and 
local requirements of each particular district. If the fetters of 
"payment by results" were removed, there would be more elasticity 
in the teaching, and each school, within the general lines laid down, 
would develop according to its needs. Moreover, a better educated 
and more cultivated class of persons would be attracted to the 
teacher's profession ; and before long, we should find, that intelli- 
gent teaching had taken the place of the mechanical drill, which is 
incidental to the present system of distributing State aid. 

There is another change, more closelj^ connected with the one 
here advocated than is generally supposed, to which many of us now 
hopefully look forward. As a measure of justice to the poorer 
classes, and as relieving the teachers from irksome, onerous and 
anxious duties, which largely interfere with strictly educational 
work, the abolition of school fees is a reform urgently needed, and 
one which in many interests should not be long dela3^ed. I believe, 
however, that this reform might be more easily accomplished, if 
undertaken in conjunction with such changes in our Code, as would 
enable us to dispense with " payment on results." 

The three planks that constitute the platform of the new 



TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION. 145 

educational departure are (1) Abolition of payment on results ; (2) 
Practical teaching ; (3) Free Schools ; and I have placed them in 
the order of importance. 1 believe that a great part of the difficulty 
raised b}' the question of the existence and public control of 
voluntary schools might be met by extending and strengthening our 
system of inspection. Indeed, I think that the two questions of 
"payment on results" and "school fees" might be more easily 
considered together than apart. The question of " free schools " is 
no longer an open one. The principle, at least, is conceded. What 
•^'■e want is to discover a means of reconciling with free education 
the continued existence of really efficient voluntary schools, and of 
providing, whilst leaving them to a great extent under denomina- 
tional contiol, a public guarantee of their efficiency. The problem, 
although a difficult one, should not defy solution. It demands, 
however, separate and careful consideration. What I now urge is, 
that precedence be given to the question of " payment on results " ; 
and, I believe, that the means to be adopted to ensure the efficiency 
of our schools, without recourse to this much-abused system, will 
open the door to a solution of the problem of Free Schools. 

Philip Magnus. 



VOL. I. 



PAET XI. 

NEW CODE FOR 1890. 

The new code for 1890, which has recently been laid before 
Parliament and which is to come into force on the 1st September 
next, marks a very distinct advance in the system of elementary 
education in this countrj^ The recommendations of the late Eoyal 
Commission on Education have been much more extensively 
embodied than in the ill-fated draft code of last year — a circum- 
stance which largely accounts for its more favourable reception. 

It is questionable, however, whether even this measure treats with 
sufficient boldness the various points needing improvement in our 
educational system — witness, for instance, the hesitating manner in 
which ampler opportunities of self-culture are claimed for pupil 
teachers. Compared, however, with previously existing arrange- 
ments, and viewed merely as a considerable instalment of the 
improvements needed, the new Code of 1890 is an important step 
in advance. 

In the following sketch of its contents the provisions have been 
grouped under different heads, and in notes at foot have been given, 
as far as possible, references to the recommendations of the Eoyal 
Commission upon which the new regulations have been based. 

Though the general framework of the Code is similar to that of 
its immediate predecessors, the document differs so much from them, 
both in substance and in wording, as to be practically an entirely 
new one. Accordingly the schedule of changes which is usually 
appended to each new edition of the Education Department's regu- 
lations is omitted on the present occasion. Many of the changes, 
however, are merely formal, and have in view rather the rendering 
of the document self-consistent and in harmony with the actual 
practice of the Department than the introduction of new provisions. 

General Conditions. — Except in one respect these do not differ 
very materially from those in previous editions of the Code. 

The school must be a public elementary school ; children must 
not be refused on other than reasonable grounds ; the provisions of 
the Elementary Education Act, 1870, in respect of Time Tables must 
be complied with ; the school must not be unnecessary ; it must not 
be conducted for private profit — this provision being, not altogether 
unnecessarity, emphasized on the present occasion by an added pro- 
hibition of the school being " farmed out by the managers to the 
teacher ; " it must, if a day school, have met not less than 400 
times — with exceptions in case of epidemics or elections, &c., &c. — 



NEW CODE FOR 1890. 147 

with certain conditions as to premises, staff, furniture, apparatus, 
instruction and registers, upon which later provisions dwell more in 
detail. A schedule of building regulations is added to which in 
future all new schools or enlargements of existing schools must 
conform, but which are not otherwise to apply to schools now in 
operation. The material change is that which provides for the 
entire withholding of the grant in case of continued inefficiency ; 
before however this course can be resorted to, the Inspector must 
report " specifically the grounds " of his adverse judgment, and " the 
Department must, with the report, give formal warning to the 
managers that the grant may be withheld ... at the next annual 
inspection, if the Inspector again reports the school ... to be 
inefficient ; " while even in the event of a second unfavourable 
report the managers are to be allowed an appeal to the Chief 
Inspector against the Inspector's decision, and in that case it is 
only in the event of the unfavourable report being confirmed by 
that of the Chief Inspector that the grant is to be withdrawn. 

A copy of the accounts of the school and a notice that the report 
may be seen at the school is to be posted for at least 14 days on the 
school-door or on some other public place in the school district 
immediately upon receipt of the annual report.* In these accounts 
express permission is now given to include the salary paid to a 
teacher of drawing, manual instruction or laundry work whether 
such teacher is " at a central class " or is " a peripatetic teacher " ; 
this is an extension of the like permission previously given in respect 
of teachers of drill, cookery, or any other special subject. 

Subjects of Instruction. — The subjects for which grants may be 
made, are, as in previous Codes, divided primarily into " Obligatory" 
and " Optional " subjects, and the latter subdivided into (1) such as 
are " taken by classes throughout the school," and (2) such as 
are " taken by individual children in the upper classes of the 
school " — a third group, consisting of subjects taken only by girls, 
being added in the present Code. The " obligatory " subjects con- 
sist of the three " elementary subjects " — Reading, Writing and 
Arithmetic — of Needlework for girls in Day Schools, and of Draw- 
ing for boys in other than Infant Schools f — the grant, however, for 
this last subject is to be made by the Science and Art, and not by 
the Education, Department. The *' optional subjects " taken by 
classes consist of Singing, Recitation, Drawing for boys in Infant 
Schools, and of the subjects called as heretofore " Class Subjects," 
viz. : — English, Geography, Elementary Science, History, and (for 
girls) Needlework — the special preference hitherto given to English 
being abolished. I The "optional subjects" taken by individual 
children are, as before, called " Specific Subjects " and consist not 
only of those included in former Codes — Algebra, Euclid, Men- 
suration, Mechanics, Chemistry, Physics, Animal Physiology, 
Botany, Principles of Agriculture, Latin, French, and (for girls) 
Domestic Economy — but also of four others introduced now for the 

* Recommendations 13 and 21. 
+ Recommendations 99 and 117. 
J Recommendation 00. 
L 2 



148 STATE EDUCATION. 

first time — Welsh (for schools in Wales),* German, Bookkeeping, and 
Shorthand. The " optional subjects " taken only b}' girls include 
the new one of " Laundry Work " as well as the former one of 
*' Cookery." It is further provided, as before, that any other subject 
besides those previously enumerated may, "if sanctioned by the 
Department," be taken as a Specific Subject for a grant ; and the 
right of Managers to provide instruction "in other secular subjects, 
and in religious subjects " for which no grant is made, again receives 
distinct recognition. It is not, of course, contemplated that all 
these subjects shall be taken by the same children or even in the 
same school. Of the optional subjects, no scholar may take, in 
addition to Singing and Recitation, more than two of the Class, and 
two of the Specific Subjects — the latter being moreover limited ex- 
clusively to children presented for examination in a Standard above 
the Fourth. Girls who take Cookery do so to the exclusion of one 
of the Specific Subjects, and Laundry Work to the exclusion either 
of Cookery or of the other Specific Subject. 

Besides the subjects for which grants are provided, permission is 
given for Manual Instruction, Phj'sical Exercises, and (for boj^s) 
Military Drill to be taught in the two hours required in a Day 
School to make "up the minimum time constituting an attendance; " 
and also for instruction in these subjects — as well as in Drawing, 
Science, Cookery, and Laundry AVork — to be given elsewhere than 
" in the school premises " and hj other than " the ordinary'- teachers 
of the school." No syllabus for " Manual Instruction " is laid down 
nor any grant for its instruction provided — the subject being scarcely 
more capable of individual examination than Cookery or Laundry 
Work, and therefore not one that can be taken as a Specific Subject. 
The suggestion that is made in Art. 85 (b) that Manual Instruction 
may be directly connected with Drawing may perhaps point to its 
being, like that subject, encouraged by a grant from the Science and 
Art Department. 

Syllabuses. — Of the Elementary Subjects and of those of the 
Specific Subjects which were included in previous Codes, sjilabuses 
not differing materially from those of former years are given in the 
Schedules. But of the new Specific Subjects sjdlabuses have not 
yet been prepared, and those of the Class Subjects have been largely 
remodelled — that for History being entirely new.f With regard to 
the Class Subjects, however, a most valuable feature has been intro- 
duced in the form of "Alternative Courses," I of which no less than 
four are given for the one subject " English," three for Geography, 
one for Geography and Histor}^ combined, and as many as eight for 
elementary Science, § each of which provides for a series of systema- 
tized object lessons being given in Standards I. and II. preparatory^ 
to the more definite teaching in the later standards. || Of the 
alternative courses in English and Geogi'aphy, one is in each case 

* Eecommendation 108. 
+ Eecommendations 95 to 93. 
X Recommendation 88. 
§ Recommendation 120. 
11 Recommendation 121. 



.V£]V CODE FOR iSjO. 149 

specially prepared for use in small rural schools. Not content with 
even this provision for elasticity, the Code concedes to Managers per- 
mission, in respect both of Class and of Specific Subjects, to frame 
courses of their own, merely requiring that they shall obtain the 
approval of the Inspector of the district.* 

Examination of Scholars. — AVith regard to Infant Schools no 
alteration is made in this respect ; but in the examination of schools 
for older scholars most important changes are introduced. Indi- 
vidual examination in the elementary subjects is no longer to be 
universal ; but, instead, " the scholars will be examined, as a rule, 
by sample, not less than one-third being individually examined," 
though " if the Managers so desire," scholars in Standards III. to 
VII. " may be examined individually throughout." The examina- 
tion is not to be limited, as heretofore, to scholars ** whose names 
have, at the end of the school year, been on the registers for the last 
22 weeks that the school has been open," but may include any child 
whose name is on the register. If proper care is taken, that the 
credit of the school shall not be unduly affected by the success or 
failure of children who have been only recently admitted, the exten- 
sion of examination to the whole scliool will be a valuable improve- 
ment ; for it will take away one of the artificial obstacles which have 
hitherto retarded the progress of scholars. Another, and perhaps 
a more serious one, will be removed by the new provision, that " the 
Standards in which scholars are presented for examination need not 
be the same for each subject."! 

The methods of examination in Class, and Specific, subjects 
remain unchanged ; but it is provided, that the children need not 
be examined "in the same standards in Class subjects as in 
Elementary subjects, nor need they be presented in the same 
Standards in both Class subjects," and that the Class subjects 
" taken may be different for different classes." 

Grants. — The grants to Infant Schools remain practically as 
before I — the only changes being that if the boys are taught drawing 
instead of needlework a grant of the same amount may be made for 
the former as for the latter subject ; that the merit grant is now 
denominated " a variable grant; " and that the determination of its 
amount is reserved to the Department instead of being left to the 
Inspector. With regard, however, to schools for older scholars the 
system is very considerably changed. The " fixed grant,"^ the 
" merit grant," and the "percentage grant" on elementary subjects 
disappear, and are replaced by "a principal grant" of 12.s. 6d. or 
14s., and "a grant for discipline and organization" of Is. or Is. 6d. 
The lower of the tw^o amounts is in each case to be a " fixed grant," 
to be reduced only in case any of the general conditions of annual 
grants are not fulfilled. The determination whether the lower or 
the higher grant is to be given is reserved to the Department after 
consideration of the Inspector's report and recommendation— subject, 

* Recommendation 87. 

+ Recommendations 78 and 115. 

t Recommendation 160. 



150 STATE EDUCATION. 

however, to the condition that the higher principal grant will not be 
given " unless the Inspector reports that the scholars throughout 
the school are satisfactorily taught Recitation." The " needlework 
grant," the " singing grant," the " class grants," and the " specific 
subjects grant," are practically unaltered — except that the determi- 
nation whether the higher or lower class grant shall be given is 
reserved to the Department, and that specific subjects grants are not 
to be made to *' any school in which, at the last preceding inspection, 
the managers did not obtain a Principal Grant of 14s." As the 
latter is, among other things, conditional upon Eecitation being 
satisfactorily taught, it follows that the specific subjects grant can 
be obtained only by schools in which Eecitation is taken. This 
result, if intended, appears to attach a somewhat exaggerated im- 
portance to the learning of a number of lines of poetry. The 
''grant for cookery" remains as before, except that in future the 
school of cookery which certifies the teacher must be one " recognized 
by the Department," the lessons must be of not less than \\ hours' 
duration, not more than 8 hours in any one week may be devoted to 
this subject, and demonstration-lessons may not be given while the 
pupils are engaged in practice-lessons. For the new subject of 
"laundry-work" a grant of 2s. is made on account of any girl 
presented in Standards IV. to VII. " who has attended not less than 
20 hours during the school year at a laundry class of not more than 
14 scholars." 

The sjDecial grants for evening schools, pupil-teachers, assistant- 
teachers, and small schools respectively, will be referred to later in 
the paragraphs dealing more particularly with those subjects. 

Staff. — The requirements under this head are somewhat increased.* 
The head teacher may still be reckoned as sufficient for an average 
attendance of 60 scholars, but a certificated assistant-teacher is to 
count for only 70 if trained, or 60 if untrained instead of 80 as 
heretofore, an assistant for 60 instead of 60, and an " additional 
female teacher" or a pupil-teacher for 30 instead of 40 — a "can- 
didate " on probation continuing as before to count for 20. In the 
case of Infant classes, also, the requirements are slightly raised — an 
adult teacher being required if the class exceeds 30 (instead of 40) 
and a certificated teacher being demanded when the attendance reaches 
50 (instead of 60). In case, however, of a casual vacancy for any 
but the principal teacher occurring during the school year, tem- 
porary monitors may, for the remainder of that year, be employed 
instead — one being accepted as sufficient for 30, and two for 60, 
scholars. " Lay persons alone are recognised as teachers in a day 
school." For small schools, to which on that account additional 
grants are to be made, a somewhat stronger proportionate staff than 
that above mentioned will be required. 

Piqnl Teachers. — The general regulations with regard to these 
young teachers remam much as before, but additional precautions 
are taken to secure greater care in their selection and trainmg. 

* Eecommendation 22. 



NEW CODE FOR 1890. 151 

Before they are apprenticed they must not only as heretofore pass 
an entrance exammation and produce certificates of good character 
and good health, but " must" also "be presented to the Inspector for 
approval.'' It is further provided that the managers must " see 
that the pupil-teacher is properly instructed during the engagement," 
and that if " this duty is neglected" the Department "may decline 
to recognise any pupil-teachers as members of the staff of a school 
under the same managers." The managers are further required to 
report annually on the manner in which the head teachers have per- 
formed their duties to the pupil-teachers. The right of superin- 
tending pupil-teachers may be withdrawn from any certificated 
teacher whom the Department may consider to have neglected his 
duty in this respect. It is no longer required that the instruction 
received by a pupil-teacher shall be " out of school hom's," — a change 
which will facilitate the grouping of pupil-teachers for central class 
instruction, by permitting such instruction to be given, on other days 
than Saturday, in the day-time, and not as at present, exclusively in 
the evening. The annual examinations are to be continued, and 
two consecutive failures to pass either of the required examinations, 
unless from illness or other sufficient cause, is to entail the conse- 
quence that the "pupil-teacher will no longer be recognised by 
the Department ; " but before the managers are informed that the 
pupil-teacher has failed in either of the first three years' examina- 
tions " the papers will be further revised in the Department." For 
the present fourth year's examination that for Queen's Scholarships 
is substituted ; which may be taken either during the fourth year 
of apprenticeship or, in the cases where the apprenticeship termi- 
nates on the 31st December or the 30th June, or at an}^ time 
between those dates, on the first occasion " following the conclusion" 
of the engagement. If the latter date is chosen it will be " the duty 
of the managers" to see that the pupil-teachers "are properly 
instructed up to the date of examination," and the pupil-teachers 
will continue to be recognised as such by the Department until the 
result of the examination is known. The withdrawal, as contem- 
plated by the draft Code of last year, of the grants hitherto made 
towards the cost of training pupil-teachers has been reconsidered, 
and instead, the apportionment of the grant has been revised. In 
place of a uniform payment of £3 and dG2 respectively for a pupil- 
teacher who passes the annual examination well or fairly, no matter 
at the end of what year, there is in future to be a scale of payments 
increasing with the progress of the apprenticeship. £2 is to be 
paid for each first or second, and d£3 for each third year pupil- 
teacher who passes well, £1 and £2 respectively being paid for the 
corresponding pupil-teachers who pass fairly — while £5 (or £4) is 
to be paid for each fourth year pupil-teacher who secures a place in 
the Fii-st (or Second) Class at the Queen's Scholarship Examination. 
For the future pupil-teachers will not, after the completion of 
their apprenticeship, be recognised as assistant teachers, unless they 
pass the Queen's Scholarship Examination ; with regard, however, 
to the present ex-pupil-teachers, it is not stated whether their con- 
tinued recognition will be in any way similarly affected. Recogni- 



152 STATE EDUCATION. 

tion as "provisionally certificated teachers" is for the future to be 
restricted to "pupil-teachers who have obtained a place in the first 
class in the Queen's Scholarship Examination." 

Assistant Teachers. — These are, as at present to consist of 
" persons who have passed the Queen's Scholarship Examination," 
of "graduates of any University in the United Kingdom," and of 
" women over eighteen years of age who have passed University and 
other examinations recognised by the Department" — to the list of 
which examinations several important additions are made, including 
the Durham University's second year examination in Arts, the 
Victoria University's Preliminary Examination and the College of 
Preceptors' Examination for the teacher's diploma. It should be 
observed that the Queen's Scholarship Examination is not limited 
to pupil-teachers, but is open to any person who will be over eighteen 
years of age on the following 1st of January ; and that candidates 
who are not successful the first time are allowed one further oppor- 
tunity of passing this examination. To encourage managers to 
provide facilities for their assistant teachers to qualify themselves 
for certificates, a grant of ^615, or £10, is made to them for each of 
such teachers who, after serving for three years in that capacity, and 
receiving during that time special instruction under arrangements 
approved by the Department, obtains a place in the first, or second, 
division on second year's papers at the certificate examination. 

Certificated Teacher's. — The whole complicated system of First, 
Second, and Third Class certificates which has hitherto prevailed is 
summarily abolished, and for the future there will be "only one 
class of certificate ; " but only those teachers who pass in the first 
or second division on second year's papers will be permitted to have 
the charge of pupil-teachers. Acting teachers will be required, like 
students in training colleges, to pass on first year's papers as well as on 
second year's — with an interval of at least one year between the two ex- 
aminations. They must also obtain from the Inspector a favourable 
report on their teaching power before each examination. These 
examinations are to be held as at present at the existing training 
colleges each December ; provision is, however, made for similar 
examinations being held not only as now at other places, but also 
at other times. This latter provision has probably in view the 
possible needs of the Day Training Colleges now contemplated — to 
Avhich reference is made later. Certificated teachers who are not 
entitled to have the charge of pupil-teachers may be re-examined at 
intervals of not less than two years, with a view to qualifying 
themselves for that duty. The right, however, of superintending 
pupil-teachers m.a,y be withdrawn if the Department consider that the 
teacher has neglected his duty to the pupil-teachers under his charge. 
Admission to a training college as a Queen's Scholar is to be 
limited, as at present, to those who obtain j)laces in the first or 
second class in the Queen's Scholarship Examinations, and to 
" acting teachers " who have past the First Year's Certificate 
Examination. The general arrangements with regard to (residential) 
training colleges remain practically unaltered, except that the 
approval of the Department is needed to the " curriculum and 



N£IV CODE FOR 1890. 153 

general aiTangements " as Avell as to " the premises, management 
and staff," and that a third year of training may, ''with the consent 
of the Department," be allowed to any particular student, but, 
apparently, without any corresponding increase of grant. 

Parchment certificates will, as at present, be issued after the 
usual period of probation ; and it is now provided that " service "in 
a training college will be recognised for this purpose. But entries 
upon teachers' parchment certificates will for the future be entirely 
discontinued. 

Day Training Colleges. — A new departure in the matter of the 
training of teachers is contemplated by the establishment of non- 
residential Training Colleges * and the admission of non-resident 
students into ordinary Training Colleges.! The change is to be 
introduced experimentally and on a limited scale I — not more than 
200 day students being recognised at one and the same time as 
Queen's Scholars ; and it is required that a Day Training College 
shall "be attached to some University or College of University 
rank." § Bursaries of £25 will be allowed to each male, and of 
£20 to each female non-resident student towards the cost of their 
maintenance, and a grant of £10 a year made to the Training 
College for their instruction and professional preparation. 

Evening Schools. — The arrangements as to grants to Evening 
Schools remain unchanged in their general features. A "fixed 
grant " of 4s. will still be made on the average attendance of a school 
Avhich has been open 45, and of 6s. on that of one open 61 or more 
times; and a grant of Is. will be made for each "pass" in any 
elementary or special {i.e. Class or Specific) subject, provided that 
the scholar examined has attended the school for eight weeks and 
has made at least 24 attendances. Several important changes, 
however, are made in the detailed arrangements — which, it may be 
hoped, will remove some of the evils which have of late years tended 
to discourage evening schools. Pupils who have passed the Fifth 
Standard in a Public Elementary School (day or evening) need no 
longer be examined in elementary subjects,!! but may be presented 
in not "less than two or more than four of the special subjects." 
As in the day schools " the Standards in which scholars are 
presented need not be the same for all subjects," but pupils who 
have not passed the Fifth Standard must be presented in some 
standard in each of the three elementary subjects. " Cookery " 
is recognised as a "special subject" for girls " presented in 
Standard IV. or any higher Standard " provided that, in addition 
to the 24 attendances required to qualify for any examination grant, 
the girls have attended the cookery class for 20 hours, and have 
spent 10 hours in cooking with their own hands. 

Small Schools.— In addition to the special grant of £10 or £15 
made under the provisions of Section 19 of the Elementary Educa- 

* Recommendation 40. 

I Recommendation 41. 

t Recommendations 40. 42, and 45 (4). 
§ Recommendation 42. 

II Recommendation 142. 



154 STATE EDUCATION. 

tion Act of 1876 to schools in districts with a population of less 
than 300 or 200 respectively, a further special grant of sOlO may be 
made to any school, situated in a district in which the population 
is less than 500, or where the population within two miles of the 
school does not exceed that number, provided that "there is no 
other public " elementary school recognised by the Department as 
available for that district or that population." This additional 
grant, however, is not to be made unless the fees charged in the 
school " are suitable to the population," and the staff more ample 
than the minimum ordinarily required for an attendance of the like 
amount.* For the latter purpose the principal teacher is to be 
reckoned as sufficient for only 40 instead of 60 scholars, an assistant 
teacher for 30 instead of 50, a pupil-teacher for 20 instead of 30, and 
a candidate for 10 instead of 20. 



Among the Eecommendations of the Eoyal Commission to which 
apparently effect might have but has not been given in the Code 
may be enumerated, Eecommendation 173 for grants in aid of the 
Salaries of organizing Masters and of itinerant teachers ; Eecom- 
mendation 152 for liberal grants to be made, as in Scotland, for 
advanced instruction to scholars who have passed the highest 
standard ; Eecommendation 32 for extra grants to be made to 
managers who extend to their pupil-teachers the advantages of 
central class instruction. Eecommendation 79 for the encourage- 
ment of School libraries ; and Eecommendation 110 for the 
introduction of a system of phj^sical instruction. 

Eecommendation 140. 



PART XII. 

EDITOEIAL SUMMAKY AND CONCLUSION. 

The preceding essays have been written, not to prove the value 
of education, for that is a truism which not even the most reactionary 
member of an}^ civilised community would in our day venture to deny ; 
but rather to show how indispensable it is to progress, and what an 
advantage is enjoj^ed by those nations amongst whom it is the most 
carefully fostered. 

It has been shown that in India educational institutions, although 
they have been established by foreign rulers and even in an alien 
tongue, are bringing into closer union and imparting a new national 
life to vast populations of varying creeds and races ; that the same 
potent influences are breaking down the superstitions and prejudices 
of centuries ; and are elevating not onlj- the men of those lands, but 
also the women, who almost from time immemorial have been 
regarded as mere creatures of convenience, and amongst some 
oriental races are even now believed to be without a soul. 
And when, in the last connexion, we read the account of what 
education has done for the fair sex in Western lands, a narrative 
here recorded by one of themselves possessing wide experience and 
holding a high position in the literary and journalistic world, we 
find that although there may be some walks of life for which her 
13hysical frame and her place in Nature have unfitted her, yet in other 
vocations which were hitherto regarded as the exclusive privilege of 
Man, his helpmate Woman is displaying remarkable intelligence and 
activity without in any way interfering with her general usefulness 
in the domestic circle. There can be little doubt that this renais- 
sance of Woman will further the spread of refinement and civilisa- 
tion ; and it is not hoping too much, that it may initiate a new era 
of chivalry shorn of its ancient coarseness, and of its more than 
doubtful morality. 

Turning to the distinctive features in the educational systems of 
various countries and the effect they have produced or are producing 
on the national life and character, we find that in many States both 
of the Old and New World universally gratuitous and compulsory 
instruction has been long in operation, and that in those countries 
the lower classes have attained a higher standard of knowledge than 
where such a system is absent or but recently introduced. Other 
conditions being equal, the effect of gratuitous primary education is 
undoubtedly to diminish pauperism and mendicancy and to add to 
the national prosperity. At first sight it may appear strange that 



156 STATE EDUCATION. 

the system should not have been estabhshed in this conntiy, but 
anyone who has studied the influence of our insular position in this 
and other matters will easily understand the cause. It is all of a 
piece with our backwardness in adopting easier and more scientific 
methods of calculating weights and values, and whilst the old- 
fashioned " weights and measures " are driven into the brains ot 
the rising generation, hardly any trouble is taken to make them 
acquainted with the more rational systems of other countries. A 
glance at the latest education Code shows that only in the sixth 
standard the Avord " decimal " makes its appearance, and then care 
is taken to notify that " questions involving recurring decimals will 
not be put to girls." 

The objection to gratuitous education has not arisen so much 
from religious prejudice or bigotry (for it is found to exist in 
countries where superstition and intolerance run high,) as from a 
desire not to interfere with existing methods and to respect " vested 
interests." A remarkable illustration of this tendency in our people 
and one that is quite germane to the question at issue is the training 
of the deaf and dumb in this country. It is now pretty generally, 
but by no means universally known that the old system of " dacty- 
lology " or finger-speaking by which the deaf were formerly taught 
to communicate with the world, is rapidly giving place to the new 
or " Oral " method, which enables persons so afflicted to speak, and 
to follow the motions of the lips in conversation, with more or less 
facility. But we are so far behind other countries in this reform 
that even intelligent writers in our journals regard the oral method 
as one that is just discovered, and a leader-writer in one of our 
principal daily papers stated recently that it had made rapid progress 
since its introduction into England " about eight years ago." The 
fact is that the oral system, which has been largely employed in 
Holland and elsewhere for half-a- century, was introduced into this 
country quite thirty years since in private families, and an able 
teacher of the new system was engaged by our Government and sent 
to fill the post of Superintendent of the Deaf and Dumb institutions 
of New Zealand about fifteen years ago. But a comparison of the 
systems existing all over the world shows that in England alone the 
old barbarous method (for barbarous it is, inasmuch as it keeps the 
deaf who are able to articulate dumb all their lives) is still largely 
in vogue, and is by many well-meaning persons warmly defended ; 
whilst in some places a truly English compromise, known as the 
" combined system " is employed. As a matter of fact the old mode 
of instruction has been retained because the supply of efficient 
teachers of the oral method is restricted ; because the teachers of 
the finger-system have found it easier to convince Committees of 
Management that the new S3'stem is imperfect than to master it 
themselves ; and where the Committees have known better they 
have hesitated to dismiss the teachers and engage others more 
competent ; and finally because many of the clergy who take an 
active part in the religious instruction of the deaf and dumb, besides 
having a dread and an abhorrence of anything emanating from the 
Continent, find it more convenient to impart such instruction 



EDITORIAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 157 

indirectly through an interpreter than to qualify themselves for 
direct communication with the children. It is to be hoped that 
the interest which is being awakened in this phase of the Education 
question will lead to a more rational treatment of what are known 
as deaf-mutes, and we have dwelt upon it here because it explains 
much that is backward and imperfect in other branches of Education. 
We have seen, for example, that whilst in nearly every other countr}^ 
training schools for teachers have been founded and are managed by 
the State, and the attendance at them is gratuitous, here the}' are 
denominational only, however liberally they may be aided by the 
State ; and that the scarcity of trained instructors perpetuates a 
system of " pupil-teachers " which is admittedly a makeshift. That 
the Government is l)eginning to awaken to its responsibility in this 
respect is witnessed by the extension of training facilities afforded 
by the New Code. The zeal which the people of the United States 
have thrown into this movement is seen in the " Teacher's In- 
stitutes " which have been described by our esteemed writer on 
American Education, and we can testify from personal observation 
to the great benefits which they are conferring upon the educational 
world of the West. Those conferences have been in existence there 
for many years, and no time should be lost in establishing similar 
institutions in Great Britain. We are surprised that the Scotch 
have not long since taken the initiative. 

The defects of the system of " payment on results " have also been 
recognised and in part remedied by the New Code, and whilst it is 
certainly undesirable that the State should relax its vigilance, and 
that inefficient teaching should be permitted, there is still a " retail" 
look about the whole method of remunerating teachers, which is 
unworthy of a great people. What will after-generations say when 
they take up the perfected Code, and read that whilst a teacher 
receives a fixed grant of 12s. Qd. each, for his older pupils, he is 
entitled to the munificent sum of Is. M. extra, if their memory has 
been trained, or it may be tortured, until they are capable of reciting 
150 lines of Milton or Shakespeare ! 

To return to "free schools," however: If there be one principle 
upon which all thoughtful persons seem to be agreed it is that ele- 
mentary education which is compulsory, should also be gratuitous, 
and it is no longer a question whether, but when and by whom 
it shall be granted. It is much to be regretted that with the means 
in hand the present Government has not conferred that boon upon 
the people. Sectarianism, as usual, stops the wa}', and, for the 
moment, the clergy having taken fright, have influenced the Govern- 
ment to inaction. But this cannot be of long duration ; the Liberal 
party is pledged to free education, and if the Prime Minister was 
correctly reported, he told his followers at a secret conclave that his 
party are bound to deal with the matter ; for if left untouched by 
the present Government and their opponents should obtain a 
majority, they would deal with it in such a manner that the voluntary 
schools would be swept away. 

This was a most unfortunate mode of explaining the situation. 
Few, if any, wish to sweep away denominational schools, nor is it 



158 STATE EDUCATION. 

right that those who have done so much for education in the past, 
and whose exertions are still active in the cause, should have their 
zeal damped or their antagonism aroused by drastic measures. It 
is estimated that during the last 20 years seven and a half millions 
have been expended by denombationalism in providing school ac- 
commodation for children, and this alone entitles them to respect 
and consideration. The real question at issue is whether the State 
shall exercise extended control in granting extended aid, and those 
who are best acquainted with the views of Parliament have expressed 
the opinion that if a measure of moderate popular local control 
(and the present Government would make it as moderate as possible) 
were proposed in Parliament it would meet with the acquiescence of 
the whole of the Liberal party and of half the Conservatives. The 
votes of the " dissentient Liberals" would therefore count for little, 
on whichever side they might be recorded. 

We have seen that in the most advanced of the United States of 
America not only is education gratuitous, but its importance to the 
people is so far recognised as to lead the State authorities to provide 
books and apparatus for the scholars, and free education for all 
classes of citizens. And why should free education in England be 
granted to one class only ? Is it fair to the midxUe classes, especially 
the lower middle class, that they should not only have to educate 
their own children, but should be compelled to contribute to the 
school-rates for the benefit of those of the labouring classes ? Is it 
not a fact that in many instances the artisan is better able to pay 
for the education of his children than is the clerk or tradesman of 
limited means ? And is not the training of the mind a more vital 
necessity to those who have to earn their livelihood with the pen 
than to the artisan working with his hands ? It will not be long 
before these questions will be considered and answered by the middle 
classes, and "free education" in the broadest sense will be the 
necessary consequence. 

As to the greater advantages of Board or Secular Schools as 
compared with denominational schools, and the consequent dis- 
appearance of the latter, that is a problem which time alone can 
solve. No one, unless it be the secularists, would desire to see a 
'* Godless " system of education, but that is very different from the 
association of creeds with secular instruction. Creeds and catechisms 
may be essential to salvation, but the comparison drawn in our first 
article, between the Mohammedan and the Hindoo system in the 
East, and the general results so far in the West, show that where 
the mind of the young is relieved from the stram of committing 
creeds and religious formularies to memory, the secular training is 
more efficient, and such schools prosper where the denominational 
institutions languish. 

But important as the much debated questions of "free" and of 
" denominational" schools may be, there are others which appear to 
us of far greater moment. The first of those is the problem which 
perplexes the local authorities, especially in our large towns, as to how 
they shall deal with "waifs and strays." This was the primary 
object for which School Boards were established, for the first duty 



EDITORIAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 159 

of the State is to diminish crime, pauperism, and mendicancy, hy 
preparing the children of the poor to earn an honest Uvelihood. 
But the end j^roposed has so far been very partially accomplished. 
The greatest enemies of universal education are the vicious and 
criminal classes who will neither work themselves nor give their off- 
spring the chance of gaining their bread by honest industry, for as it 
has been stated in one of the preceding articles, they train them to 
beg or steal, or at best allow them to earn a precarious living on the 
street, instead of labouring for them in their infancy and giving them 
the best preparation they can afford for their duties in after-life. 
Here, too, it must be borne in mind, that the shortcomings of the 
State have been atoned for by the efforts of individuals, and that in 
the large towns at least, the work of rescue has been mainly under- 
taken by philanthropic clergymen and laymen, who have not waited 
for the children to be "committed" before opening the door of 
reform, but have snatched them from the streets and brought them 
under civilising influences. In this respect the State has acted to a 
great extent as in the case of normal schools, giving support to 
existing institutions, but (excepting in connection with Avorkhouses) 
taking no initiative. Undoubtedly in any future action the disin- 
terested benefactors of society should be considered and encouraged, 
but if this country wishes to hold its place amongst the nations, 
prompt measures will have to be taken to rescue the crowd of poor 
neglected children who, from no fault of their own, swarm in the 
streets of our large cities. But here again comes in the convenient 
cry of " interference with the liberty of the subject," a cry that is 
too frequentl}^ raised in order to block the path of reform. *' What 
is to be done with them ? " we are asked. " If you take them away 
from their parents and put them into industrial institutions, you are 
interfering with paternal riglits, diminishing the responsibility of 
parents, and depriving the children of their natural guardians." 
Natural guardians, forsooth ! And do you give the children a better 
chance in life, by putting their parents in gaol, and leaving them to 
shift for themselves ? Both humanity and expediency suggest that 
the industrial school system must be greatly extended, the streets 
must be watched more closely, and the work of rescue and punish- 
ment undertaken, not by private societies, but by the State and local 
authorities ; the great staring blot upon our national character which 
is pointed at with scorn by the visitors to our shores, must be wiped 
out; and cokta que coute the waifs and strays of the rising generation 
must be rescued from vice and crime, and trained to useful emploj'- 
ment, not only for their own advantage, but in the interests of the 
whole community. 

A more delicate matter, one which it is necessary to treat without 
reserve, but which is not always so handled, is the subject of "tech- 
nical instruction." The Code just issued shows that there is every 
desire on the part of the State to adopt the recommendations of the 
Eoyal Commission based largely on the experiences and action of 
other countries. But as a matter of fact the chief opponents of 
technical or trade instruction are to be found in the ranks of the 
skilled operatives themselves. Those persons are much more 



i6o STATE EDUCATION. 

anxious to confine trade-instruction to the worl-csliop and factory 
than to extend it even in the schools which have heen founded for 
their own benefit. Such men think far less of their children than 
of themselves, and this is how they reason : '' We are at present 
brought into competition with the sons and friends of om- employers, 
who are sent into the workshop where they get a little manual 
instruction, and are then placed in authority over us, filling the 
higher j)osts whilst we are kept in the position of day-labourers. 
And not that alone," they add, " but the introduction of machinery 
makes the career of such intruders into our fields of industry easier, 
for with the aid of technical knowledge they can work the machine 
that is supplanting our hand-labour." This last is no imaginary 
argument. It was recently urged in the public prints by a com- 
positor in one of our large cities, as a reason for discountenancing 
technical instruction, for, he said, owing to the introduction of 
machines into the printing-offices which work swifter than men, 
"persons that have no connexion with the trade would be enabled 
to foist themselves upon the profession through learning the principles 
of the business at a technical school." 

In this respect the operative reasons precisely as he does when 
he goes out on strike on insufficient grounds and gives up the fort 
to the enemy ! It is quite true that gentlemen send their sons into 
workshops to go through a course of manual labour, not often, how- 
ever, to pick up a smattering of practical work, but to fit themselves 
thoroughly for the control of a manufacturing concern, and of the 
men employed therein ; and at the same time they take care that 
their sons shall acquire all the theoretical knowledge necessary for 
pursuing their avocation. But if the employer teaches his son the 
workman's trade is that any argument against the workman's 
seeming for nis children the knowledge which maintains the employer 
in his position of superiority ? If the facts here stated prove any- 
thing, thej' show that the educated parent of the middle classes 
teaches his son that he must " stoop to conquer," and that he has 
greater forethought for his welfare than he of the artisan class has 
for Ms children. And again, if machinery is supplanting hand- 
labour owing to its greater efficiency, is that a reason for keeping 
his children ignorant of the nature and action of such machinery, and 
of the technical knowledge requisite for its x)roper construction, 
management, and repair ? 

The earnestness with which young men of the middle classes are 
directing their attention to the study of mechanics, chemistry, &c., 
arises mainly from the new spheres of enterprise ox^ened up by per- 
fected machinery and improved chemical processes, and it rests with 
the skilled artisans and operatives whether they will leave the field 
to young men who study in the colleges, or whether, by taking the 
control of their own schools and fitting them with the best appliances 
for trade-instruction, they will help their children to rise above the 
rank of daj'-labourers. Neither co-operation nor industrial partner- 
ship will avail them unless they train their children's minds as well 
as their hands. It is unwise of well-intentioned employers and 
friends of education to bandy words with, or seek to coax the artisan 



EDITORIAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. i6i 

class into the acceptance of trade-instruction by calling it " technical 
education " which may mean anything or nothing. It is not a pill 
to be gilt, but a reform in our industrial system which should be 
welcomed by all intelligent workmen desirous of promoting the wel- 
fare of their children. We want and we shall have trade-instruction 
of two kinds ; one for children in connexion with elementary educa- 
tion (and the New Code looks very promising in that respect), and 
the other of a more advanced description, such as we find in the 
progi'amme of the Manchester Technical School, and in agricultural, 
weaving, and other trade-schools for young persons already estab- 
lished in different parts of the countr3\ Abroad such schools have 
long existed, and although here their extension may be delayed by 
the causes akeady assigned and by the national tardiness, it is 
only a question of time, and we venture to predict that not a few of 
those artisans who are the earliest to appreciate their utility, and are 
prompt to avail themselves of their advantages, will be reckoned 
amongst the wealthiest and most enterprising capitalists of the 
future. 

But there are other and even graver considerations connected with 
the spread of education than its bearing upon the material condition 
of the poorer classes, or upon Woman, or commerce and the national 
industries. That education is an important factor in the political 
life of a nation goes without saying. In despotic Russia, which is 
constantly on the brink of a revolution, it is said that not one in 
twelve of the populace can either read or write, whilst, looking at 
the other end of the political scale, we find free Massachusetts 
possessing the highest degree of education in all classes of society ; 
and Washington long since declared that knowledge is in every 
country the surest basis of public opinion. In this country 
opposition to the extension of the franchise has always been based 
upon the unfitness of the masses to exercise it, owing to their 
defective education ; whilst at this very hour we are told that India is 
not ripe for representative Government because the mass of the 
people are still ignorant and uneducated. These facts and argu- 
ments are all focussed in the call of the political reformer to 
*' Educate, educate, educate ! " 

And when we come to reflect upon the relations between education 
and religion, we find that although the circumstances may vary, the 
principles and policy are identical. Not even tlie most bigoted 
theologians will now affirm that it is for the advantage of religion that 
education should be neglected. They may diff'er as to its form, and 
some may wish to restrict the amount of certain kinds of knowledge 
which should be imparted, lest it should lead to inquiry into dogmas 
which they think should be accepted on trust ; but each religious 
denomination has by this time arrived at the conviction that if its 
members be kept in ignorance of what the rest of the world knows, 
it means decadence and extinction for that denomination and — as in 
everything else — the survival of the fittest ; so all are eager to profit 
by State endowments, although, as we have seen, all are not equally 
prepared to accept the conditions upon which they are granted. 
And finally education treated as an abstract subject, call it what 

VOL. I. VL 



i62 STATE EDUCATION. 

you will, "the science of education," or " comparative education," 
presents itself as an intensely interesting and absorbing study, for 
the elucidation of which the materials are being actively collected and 
collated by a thousand busy pens and brains. Nothing can be more 
fascinating than to follow the development of the intellect of peoples 
of varying tastes and occupations ; here of a nation enjoying peculiar 
physical or geographical advantages ; there of another surrounded 
by the grandest natural phenomena ; or again of an emigrant race, 
forced b}^ political or religious exigencies to quit the soil of their 
ancestors, and carrying with them the impress of their past history, 
to wander far away and settle down in a distant land and under new 
and untried conditions. Here Art reigns supreme ; there Commerce 
rules ; and elsewhere Agriculture has ever been the national industry. 
How have these nations trained their youth in the past ? How do 
they propose to train them in the future to fit them for the battle of 
life under the ever-changing conditions of civilisation ? All nations, 
especially all civilised peoples of the earth, are rapidly merging into 
one great human family, not any longer in the biological sense only, 
but in their intellectual and moral nature ; and this fusion will be 
undoubtedly accelerated by the extension of knowledge, the inter- 
change of national thought and experiences, and the adoption of 
common methods of educating the young. 

How heartily should we rejoice, if in gathering together in these 
pages a few of the materials for the study of " comparative educa- 
tion " we could feel that we have given ever so slight an impulse to 
the expansion of that unlimited faculty in Man which, we believe, 
exalts him high above all known created beings. 



BIBLIOGKAPHY. 

The following are the titles of a few Works and Reports which 
will be found useful to the reader who desires to make himself fully 
acquainted with the branches of education of which the}^ treat. 
Most of them have been contributed by the authors of the pre- 
ceding articles : for the French list we are indebted to M. Buisson, 
Councillor of State, Director of Primary Instruction in the Ministry 
of Education, Paris ; and for the Reports on Swedish, Norwegian, 
and Danish instruction, to the respective Departments in those 
countries. Without instituting any comparison between the various 
excellent Reports on Continental education, we desire particularly 
to draw attention to that of Dr. Laislile}^ of Wellington, New 
Zealand, on the educational systems of several leading Continental 
States, which, we think, shoiild be reprinted for the benefit of 
readers and students in the Mother Country. Most of the titles of 
Educational Journals have been extracted from the remarkable and 
interesting " Insertions Kalender " of Mr. Rudolf Mosse (Berlin: 
London Agency, 16 & 18, Victoria Street) ; and we have to thank 
many friends both at home and abroad for the assistance they have 
rendered to us in the compilation of what must necessarily be a 
very incomplete Hst of recent Works and Reports on Education. 



ENGLAND* 

Reports of the Education Department. 1839 — 1889. 

Report of the Royal Commission on Education. 

Report of the Royal Commission on Technical Instruction. 

" The Schools for the People." By George C. T. Bartley. Bell & Daldy. 

SCOTLAND. 

Reports of Scotch Education Department. 1872 — 1889. 
Parochial Law. By Alexander Dunlop, Advocate. 1841. 
Compendium of the Laws of the Church of Scotland. 1830. 
Reports of Commission of Inquiry on Schools in Scotland. 1865 — 66. 
Report of Conuuission on Endowed Schools and Hospitals in Scotland 

1873. 
Reports of Commission on Endowed Institutions in Scotland. 1880 — 81. 
Report of Scottish Educational Endowment Commissioners. 1882 — 1889. 
Reports of Board of Education in Scotland. 1873—1878. 
The State and Education. By H. Craik. (Citizen Series) 1884. 

* See also " Tochuical," etc. 
M 2 



i64 STATE EDUCATION. 

lEELAND. 

Eeports of Commissioners of National Education. 1834 to 1888. 
Evidence taken by Committee of House of Lords on Education in Ireland. 

1837. 
Evidence taken by Committee of House of Commons. 1837. 
Evidence taken by Committee of House of Lords. 1854. 
Report of Royal Commission on Science and Art. 1866. 
Report of Royal Commission on Primary Education in Ireland (Powis). 

1868-1870. 
Report of Select Committee on Education, Science and Art. 1884. 
Rej)ort of Royal Commission on Industi-ial and Reformatory Schools. 1884. 
Report of Royal Commission on Education. 1887. 
Report of Royal Commission on the Deaf, Dumb and Blind. 1889. 

FRANCE. 

Michel Breal. — Quelques mots sur I'instruction publique en France. 

Paris, Hachette, in- 12°. 
Felix Pecaut. — Etudes au jour le jour sur l'6ducation nationale. Paris, 

Hachette, in- 12°. 
Jules Simon. — L'Ecole. Paris, Hachette, in-12°. 
0. Greard. — Education et instruction : Enseignement primaire ; enseigne- 

ment secondaire, enseignement superieur. Paris, Hachette, 4 vols. in-12°. 
Anthoine. — A travers nos ecoles. Paris, Hachette, in-12°. 
Leysseune (P.). — Tableau general de I'enseignement primaire public et 

prive a ses divers degres. Paris, Impr. Nat'""., 1889, in-8vo. 
Buisson (F.). — Dictionnaire de pedagogie et d'instruction primaire. l"''^ 

Partie. — Encyclopedic theorique et historique de I'instruction primaire. 

2"^ Partie. — Encyclopedic pratique de I'enseignement primaire. Paris, 

Hachette, 4 vol. in-8vo. 
Marion {H.). — Mouvement des idees pedagogiques en France depuis 1870. 

Paris, Impr. Nat^^, 1889, in-8vo. 
En general, consulter la Collection des Memoires et documents scolaires publics 
par le Musee Pedagogique. 1'" et 2^ Series. 

Legislation Scolaire. 

Pichard. — Nouveau Code de I'instruction primaire. Paris, Hachette, in-12°. 
Martel (F.). — Legislation ct reglementation de renseignement primaire. 
(1878 a 1888). Paris, Impr. Nat'^, 1889, in-8vo. 

Education of Women. 

Paul Broca. — Rapport fait au Senat au nom de la Commission charge 
d'examiner le projet de loi adopte par la Chambre des Deputes sur 
I'enseignement secondaire des jeunes filles. 

Journal Officiel, 21 Nov. 1880, 10 Dec. 1880, et 17 Dec. 1880. 

Comptes Rendus des Seances du Congres Frangais et International du Droit 
des Femmes. Dentu, 3 Place Valois, Paris. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 165 

FRANCE— conimwef^. 

Aubcrt, Inspecteur primaire de Lille ; et P. Vincent, Inspecteur Primal le 

de la Seine. — Legislation et Administration de I'enseignement primaiie, 

Code annoto des lois organiques. Fernand Nathan, 18 Rue de Cond^. 
Enseignement primaire public a Paris, 1877 — 1888. 
Les Ecoles Maternelles ; les Ecoles elementaires. Ville de Paris, h la 

direction de I'Enseignement Primaire. 
Rapport adresse au President de la R^publique ]3ar le Ministre de 

rinstruction Publique au sujet de la statistique de I'enseignement 

secondaire, de 1876 a ] 889. 
Sec, Camille, — Proposition de loi sur I'enseignement secondaire des jeunes 

filles, pri'sente a la Chambre des Deputes. 
Rapport de M. Camille See, presente a la Chambre des Deputes suv 

rinstruction secondaire des jeunes filles. 
Journal Officiel du 16 Dec. 1879, du 20 Janvier, 1880, et du 21 Janvier, 

1880. 

GERMANY. 

Monnier, Frederic. — L'instruction populaire en Allemagne, en Suisse, &c. 
Paris, 1867, 8vo. 

Kehr, G. — Geschichte der Methodik des deutschen Volksschulunterrichte«, 
4 M. Gotha, 1877—1882, 8vo. 

Kaemmel, H. J. — Geschichte des deutschen Schulwesens in Uebergange. 
Leipzig, 1882, 8vo. 

Davis, (J. B. — Report on Schools in Germany and Switzerland. Birming- 
ham, 1879, 8vo. Houghton & Hammond. 

Perry, 0. J. — Reports on German Elementary Schools and Training Col- 
leges. Rivingtons, 1887. 

BELGIUM. 

Discailles, E. — Histoire des concours generaux de I'enseignement. 3 tom. 

P. Weissenbach, Bruxelles, 1882—83, 8vo. 
Montliaye, P. A. — Code de l'instruction primaire de Belgique. E. Gailliard, 

Bruges, 1873, 8vo. New edition, 1878. 
Stasse, Alexis. — Code administratif de I'enseignement primaire en Belgique. 

G. Thiriat, Liege, 1881, 12°. 
Barnard. — National Education, pt. ii., pp. 369 to 401. 

ITALY. 

Giordano, M. — Dell' istruzione pubblica in Italia. Napoli, 1882, 8vo. 

Boschi, G. — La Scuola elementare. Napoli, 1882, 8vo. 

Document! suU' istruzione elementare nel Regno d'ltalia. 3 vols. Florence, 

1868, &c. 
Statistica dell' istruzione elementare pubblica e privata in Italia. Roma, 

1881. 
Celesia, Emanuele. — Storia della pedagogia Italiana. 2 vols., Milano, 

1872—4, 8vo. 



1 66 STATE EDUCATION. 

SWITZERLAND. 

Statistic^ue sur Tinstruction publique en Suisse pour I'annee 1881, &c. 
7 torn. Zurich. (Tom. 1 — 3, Statistiques des ecoles primaires. Tom. 4, 
Ecoles enfantines, ecoles d'adultes, ecoles professionnelles. Tom. 5, 
Ecoles moyennes et 6coles superieures, academies, universitds. Tom. 6, 
Tables. Tom. 7, Legislation scolaire.) 

Hunziker, Dr. 0, — Geschiclite der Scliweizerisclien Volksschule. F. Schult- 
hess, Zurich, 1880—82, 8vo. 

Kinkdin. — Statistik des Unterrichtswesens in der Schweiz im Jahre, 1871. 
7 vols. Basel, 1874, &c., 8vo. 

SWEDEN. 

H. Klinghardt. — Das hohere Schulwesen Schwedens und dessen Eeform in 

modernem Sinne. Leipzig, 1887. 
Dictionnaire de Pedagogie et d'Instruction, publie sous la direction de 

F. Buisson. Paris, Libraire Ilachette et Comp. (art. Suede). 
Encyclopadie des gesammten Erziehungs- und Unterrichtswesens, heraus- 

gegeb. von K. A. Schmid. Leipzig, 1887 (art. Schweden). 
Stadga ang&ende folkundervisningen. 18 Juni, 1842. 
Reglor for folkskolelarare seminarierna i riket. 1 December, 1865. 
Stadga for rikets elementarlaroverk. 29 Jan. 1859. 
Akademi Statuter. 2 April, 1852. 

NORWAY. 

Lov om Almueskolevoesenet. i Kjobstaderne, 12 Juli, 1848. 
Lov om Almueskolevoesenet paa Landet. 16 Mai, 1860. 
Lov om offentlige Skoler for den lioiere Almuedannelse. 17 Juni, 1869. 
Lov indeholdende Fundats for det Kongelige norske Fredriks Universitet 
i Christiania. 28 Juli, 1827. 

DENMARK. 

Plan for Undervisningen i Kj0benhavns Kommunes offentlige Skoler. 

Schultz, Copenhagen, 1888. 
Beretning om det Kji2(benhavnske Borger- og Almueskolevoisens Tilstand 
for Aaret 1888. Schultz, Copenhagen, 1889. 

EUROPE (GENERAL). 

LaisAZei/.— Report on State Education in Great Britain, France, Switzer- 
land, &c., &c., &c., and the U.S.A. ; with a special report upon Deaf 
Mute Instruction.* Wellington, New Zealand, 1886. 

Arnold, Matthew. — Schools and Universities on the Continent. MacmiUan, 
London, 1868, 8vo. 

* For information concerning the Oral Instruction of the Deaf, see the various 
works of Van Praagh, of Fitzroy Square Training College. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 167 

EUROPE (GENERAL)— co«<miiefZ. 

Barnard, Henry. — National Education in Europe. Case, Tiffany & Co., 

Hartford, 1854, 8vo. 
Klemm, L. R., Ph.D. — European Schools, or what I saw in the Schools 

of Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland. D. Appleton. 



THE UNITED STATES. 

Report to the Schools Inquiry Commissioners (Blue Book). Rev. James 

Eraser, 1867. 
The Free School System of the United States. Francis Adams, 1875. 
Cyclopsedia of Education. Kiddle & Schem, New York, 1883. 
Cyclopsedia of Education. Sonnenschein, London, 1889. 
Notes on American Schools and Training Colleges (Blue Book). Dr. J. G. 

Fitch, H.M.I., 1889. 
Reports of the Commissioner of Education, U.S.A. Washington, 1886 

—1888. 
Report of the Royal Commission on the Elementary Education Acts. 

Foreign Returns (Blue Book), 1888. 
Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Boston, 1887 — 88. 
Education. Monthly Magazine edited by Wm. A. Mowry. Boston 

1880—1889. 
City School Systems in the U.S. Dr. John 1), Philbrick (Government 

Publication), 1885. 
Rural Schools : Progress and Means of Improvement (Government Publi- 
cation), 1884. 

CANADA. 

Report to the Schools Inquiry Commissioners (Blue Book). Rev. James 

Eraser, 1867. 
Cyclopaedia of Education. Sonnenschein, London, 1889. 
Educational System of the Province of Ontario (Government Publication). 

Toronto, 1886. 
The Schools of Greater Britain. John Russell, London, 1888. 
Report of the Royal Commission on the Elementary Education Acts. 

Foreign Returns (Blue Book), 1888. 

AUSTRALIA. 

Report of the State of Public Education in Victoria. Chas. H. Pearson, 

Melbourne, 1878. 
Report of the Minister of Public Instruction, Victoria. Melbourne, 

1886—87. 
Acts and Regulations of the Education Department, South Australia. 

Adelaide, 1885. 
The Schools of Greater Britain. John Russell, London, 1888. 



i68 STATE EDUCATION. 

ATJSTKALIA— cowif/i-Hec?. 

Impressions of Australia : Education. Dr. K. W. Dale (Article in the 

Contemporary Eeview). London, Feb. 1889. 
Keport of the Eoyal Commission on the Elementary Education Acts, 

Foreign Eeturns (Blue Book), 1888. 



INDIA. 

Eeportof the Indian Education Commission. Government Press, Calcutt;i, 

1883. 
Collection of Despatches from the Home Government on the subject of 

Education in India, 1854 to 1868. Being Volume LXXVI. of Selections 

from the Eecords of the Government of India, Home Department. 
A Note on the State of Education in India during 1865—66, by Mr. A. M 

Monteith, C.S. Being Volume LIV. of Selections from the Eecords of 

the Government of India, Home Department. 
A Note on the State of Education in India during 1866 — 67, by Mr. A. P. 

Howell, C.S. Being Volume LXVII. of Selections from the Eecords of 

the Government of India, Home Department. 
Eeview of Education in India in 1886, with special references to the 

Eeport of the Education Commission, by Sir Alfred Croft, K.C.I. E., 

M.A., Director of Public Instruction, Bengal, Calcutta. Printed by the 

Superintendent of Government Printing. India, 1888. 
Decennial Statement of the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of 

India, presented to Parliament (1885) by J. S. Cotton, Esq., M.A., 

formerly Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford (Blue Book). 
Statement exhibiting the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of 

India during the years 1887 — 88. Twenty-fourth Number (Blue Book). 

TECHNICAL AND GENEEAL. 

Eeport of the Eoyal Commissioners on Technical Instruction, 1884. 
Eeport of the Special Committee on the Subjects and Modes of Instruction 

in the Board Schools (School Board for London), 1888. 
Eeport of the Eoyal Commission on the wording of the Education Acts, 

1888. 
Special Eeport of Mr. Arnold on certain points connected with Elementary 

Education in Germany, France and Switzerland, 1886. 
Eeport of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1887-88. Washington, 

1889. 
Technical Education in Europe. First Part. Industrial Education in 

France. By J. Schoenhof. Washington, 1888. 
GaWoujai/.— Education, Scientific and Technical. Triibner, 1881. 
Magnus. — Industrial Education. Kegan Paul, 1888. 
Compayri, G. — The History of Pedagogy. Translated by W. H. Payne, M. A. 

Swan Sonnenschein, 1888. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 169 

PHYSICAL, MUSICAL, AND INFANT TRAINING. 

Watkins, A. — Singing in Elementary Schools : a course of lectures. 

J. Curwen & Sons, London, 1885, 8vo. 
Hoskms, A. B. — Singing in Schools. A complete course of practical 

teaching. Bemrose & Sons, London, 1885, 8vo. 
Moore, H. R. — Music in the Kindergarten. Sonnenschein, London, 

1881, 8vo. 
Goldainmer, H. — The Kindergarten. Williams & Norgate, London, 1882, 

8vo. 
Lofving, Concordia. — Physical Education, and its place in system of 

Education. Sonnenschein, London, 1882, 8vo. 
Lerig's Swedish Gymnastics for Schools. Hachette, London, 1885, 8vo. 
Shirreff, Emily. — The Kindergarten. Principles of Froebel's System. 

Sonnenschein, London, 1883, 8vo. 
Essays on the Kindergarten delivered before the Froebel Society. 

Sonnenschein, London, 1880, 8vo. 
Philip's Music Series. Philip & Son. 

(See also "Switzerland," j). 166.) 



FEW EDUCATIONAL JOURNALS. 

Great Britain and Ireland. 

London. — The School Guardian. 

„ The School Board Chronicle. 

„ The Schoolmaster. 

Edinburgh. — Educational News. 
Dublin. — Irish Teachers' Journal. 

Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. 
Aachen (Aix-la-Chapclle).— Rheinisch-Westfalische Schulzeitung. 
Baden-Baden. — Badische Fortbildungsschule. 
Berlin. — Deutsche Schulzeitung. 

„ Neue Deutsche Schulzeitung. 

„ Preussische Schulzeitung. 

„ Zeitschrift fiir Gewerblichen Unterricht. 

„ Deutsche Lehrerzeitung. 
Bern. — Berner Schulblatt. 

Breslau. — Katholische Schulzeitung fiir Norddeutschland. 
Budapest. — Ungarischer Schulbote. 
Dresden. — Padagogische Studien. 
Elberfeld. — Der Kiiiderfreund. 
St. Gallen. — Amtliches Schulblatt. 
Hamburg. — Padagogische Reform. 
Hanover. — Han. Schulzeitung. 
Innsbruck. — Tiroler Schulfreund. 



I/O STATE EDUCATION. 

Ld'p'^ig. — Sachsische ScliulzeituBg. 

„ AUgemeine deutsche Lehrerzeitung. 

(And many more excellent educational journals.) 
Mannheivi. — Neue Badische Schulzeitung. 
Prag. — Beseda ucitelska. 
Stuttgart. — Die Volksschule. 
Vienna. — Die Volkssclinle. 

„ ffisterreichisclier Schulbote. 

„ Die Burger Schule. 

„ NiedercEsterreichisclie Scliulzeitung. 

Zurich. — Schweitzerisclies Schularcliiv. 

„ Die Praxis der Schweiz : Volks u. Mittelsclnile. 

Other Continental Cities and Towns. 

Amsterdam. — Het nieuwe Schoolblad. 
Copenhagen. — Dansk Laedeforenings Medlemsblad. 
Paris. — Le Journal des Instituteurs. 

„ L'^^cole des Communes. 
Rome. — La Scuola elementare. 
Stochholm. — Svensk Lareretidning. 
Warsaw.— Swi&t (The World). 

United States and Canada. 

Boston. — Journal of Education. 
Chicago. — School Herald. 
Cincinnati. — Academica. 
Indianopolis. — School News. 
Milwaukie. — Erziehungs Blatter. 
Montreal. — Educational Eecord. 
New Yorh. — School Journal. 

„ El Educador Popular. 

„ College Mercury. 

Quebec. —Journal de I'lnstruction Publique. 
San Francisco. — Pacific School Journal. 
Toronto. — Canada School Journal. 



INDEX. 



Aberdeen University, 53 

Act, Education, of 1870... 30, 32-3i 

Educational Endowments, of 1882... 

52, 53 

Scotch Education, of 1872... 49 

Acts, Education, 30 

Factory, 41, 42 

Reformatory and Industrial Schools, 

41, 42 
Adam, Mr., Report on indigenous village 

schools of Bengal, 5 
Almsgiving in India, 19, 20 
Andrews, St., University, 53 
Argyllshire, Scarcity of Schools in, 4(5 
Armstrong, Lord, on education, 135 

On manual training, 142 

Arnold, Matthew, On English and Conti- 
nental Schools, 134, 135 

Auckland, Lord, and State Education in 

India, 5 
Australia, Boards of Advice in, 110 

Education in, 109-111 

Education Department in, powers 

of, 109, 110 

Pupil teacher system in. 111 

South, Education not free in, 109 

West, Education not free in, 109 

Australian Colonies essentially demo- 
cratic, 109 

Bachelleey, Madame, and her High 

Schools for girls, 121 
Banking in India, 23 
Barnard, Dr. Henry, 102 
Bartlett, Rev. Miss Carrie J., 130 
I'elgium, School attendance not com- 
pulsory in, 78 

Schools in, and religious instruc- 

tion, 74, 75 
Benares, Sanskrit College at, founded, 3 
Bengal, Effects of State Education in,10-12 

Hindus in public offices in, 8, 9 

Mr. Adam's Report on indigenous 

village schools of, 5 
Bengalis, The, 11, 12, 18, 19 
Blanche of Castille, 117 
Boards of Advice in Australia, 110 
Bombay Education Society, 4 
Bonaparte decrees primary schools for 

boys, 120 
" Book of Policy," 45 
Boston, Girls' English High School at, 94 



Boston, Girls' Latin High School at, 94 

English High School at, 93 

Latin High School at, 93 

British and Foreign School Society, 26 

Columbia, Education compulsory 

in, 108 

Education free in, 108 

Bryn Mawr University, 130 

Buddhist Monasteries and education, 3 

Building grants in L-eland, Ditficulties 

regarding, GO 

Calcutta, Hindu College, 4 

Sanskrit College, founded, 4 

School Society, 4 

Canada, All teachers adults in, 108 

Education in, 105-109 

• Education in, under provincial 

and local control, 10(j 

Normal Schools in, supported by 

the Provincial Government, 1 08 

Pupil-teacher system unknown 

in, 108 
Carnot's scheme of National Education,'! 20 
Chicago, Female Medical College at, 130 
Code, Changes required in the, 141 

New, for 1890. . .146-154 

Assistant teachers, 152 

Certiiicated Teachers, 152 

Class Subjects, 148 

Evening Schools, 153 

Examinations of Scholars, 

149 

' General Conditions of, 146, 

147 

Grants, 149, 150 

Manual Instruction, 148 

Military Drill, 148 

■ Physical Exercises, 148 

Pupil Teachers, 150, 151 

Small Schools, 153, 154 

Staff, 150 

Subjects of Instruction, 

147, 148 

— — Training Colleges, 152,153 

Revised, introduced by Mr. 

Lowe, 29 

Scotch, 50, 51 

Colleges, Denominational Training, in 
Ireland, 70 

Training, under Code 1890, 

152, 153 



1/2 



INDEX. 



Common School open to all classes in 
United States, 86 

System in America, 83 

Universal in United States, 84, 85 

Condorcet recommends Secondary State 

Schools, 120 
Convent Boarding-schools for G-u'ls in 

France, 122 
Cyr, St., Limits of age, and subjects 
taught at, 119 

Kacine at, 119 



Dalhotjsie, Lord, and Vernacular 
Schools, 5, 6 

Measures of, for development of 

India, 12 
Deaf and Dumb Training in England, 

156, 157 
Denmark, Gratuitous Instruction in, 78, 79 

Eeligious Instruction in Schools,75 

Deraismes, Maria, 128 

Desrandes, Abbe, and his Scheme for 
Public Instruction, 119 

Diane de Poitiers, 118 

Dupanloup, M., and his articles in Le Cor- 
respondent, 124 

Duruy, M., and the Education of Women, 
124, 125 



East India Company and Education, 3 
Edinburgh University, 53 
Education, Commercial, in England, 112- 
115 
Commission of Lord Kipon, 13-18 

Department in Australia, Powers 

of, 109, 110 

Elementary, English and Con- 

tinental Systems compared, 
74-81 

Elementary, in England, 26-43 

Elementary, in England con- 

trasted with other Countries, 31 

Elementary, in England, First 

grant by Parliament in aid of, 2 7 

Elementary, in Scotland, 44-45 

English and United States" 

Systems of, compared, 82-104 

Female in India, 16, 17 

Free, in Ireland, 72, 73 

Gratuitous, in England, 157, 158 

in Canada, 105-109 

in Australia, 109-111 

■ Lord Armstrong on, 135 

Modern, in India and Ancient 

Civilisation. 1-24 



Education, National, in Ireland, 56-73 

National, in Ireland, and its 

results, 57-60 

Professor Huxley on, 135 

State, destroys Musalman in- 

fluence in India, 7, 8 

State, Immediate effects of, in 

India, 7 

State, in Bengal, EfEects of, 10- 

12 

State Board of, in United States, 

Function of, 85 

State Boards of, in United States, 

83, 84 

Technical, in England, 80 

England, Absence of physical training in 

schools of, 79, 80 

Board Schools in, and religious 

instruction, 34, 35, 76 

Church of England Schools and 

religious instruction, 76 

Commercial Educationin, 112-115 

Deaf and dumb training in, 15fi» 

157 

Elementary Education in, 26-43 

• Grammar Schools in, 25, 26 

Gratuitous education in, 78, 79, 

157,158 

Eoman Catholic Schools in, and 

religious instruction, 76, 77 
— — School attendance compulsory in, 

78 
■ ■ Training Schools in, 81 

Technical Education in, 80 

English language the medium of higher 

instruction in India, 6 

Female artists in America, 131 

education in India, 16, 17 

Foreign correspondents in England, 113 
France, Convent boarding-schools for girls 

in, 122 

Instruction gratuitous in, 78 

Manual instruction in, 142 

Manual technical instruction in 

Primary Schools of, 80 

Religious instruction in schools, 

75, 76 

Salaries of teachers in, 127 

School attendance compulse ry 

in, 78 

Statistics of women employed on 

railways, &;c., 128 

System of inspection in, 140 

Three grades of inspectors in, 140 

Women in, 116-128 

Froebellian system in United States, 87 



INDEX. 



173 



George Heriot's Hospital, 53 
Germany and gratuitous instruction, 78 

and religious instruction, 74 

and trade schools, 80 

School attendance compulsory in, 

77 
Gladstone, Dr., statistics of, 186 
Glasgow University, oS 
Gordon's College, Aberdeen, r>3 
Grant, Municipal, in Canada, 107 
(irants to schools in England. 36-38 

under Code 1890.. .149, 150 

Guizot, and his bill for primary instruc- 
tion, 121 

Gupta, Mr. Das, 16 

Hastings, Wareen, establishes the Cal- 
cutta Madrasa, 3 
Hindu, Position of, 20, 21 

Society, moral changes at work, 20,21 

Hinduism, Modern, character of. 19 
Hindus, The, in public offices, 8, 9 

Progress of the, in industrial life, 

21-23 
Hutcheson's Schools, Glasgow, 53 
Huxley, Professor, on Education, 135 

India, Almsgiving in, 19, 20 

Ancient civilisation and modern 

education in, 1-24 

Banking in, 23 

Committee of Public Instruc- 
tion, 4 

English Language the medium of 

higher instruction in, 6 

English rule in, 1-3 

Female education in, 16, 17 

Immediate effects of State Edu- 

cation in, 7 

Indian National Congress, IS 

Lord Dalhousie and Vernacular 

Schools, 5, 6 

Musalman influence destroyed 

by State Education in, 7, 8 

Religion in, 19 

Secondary Schools in, 6 

Sir Stafford Northcote's despatch, 

the Charter of Education in, 5 

Standards of the pass-examina- 

tion in Universities of, 15, 16 

Statistics of School Attendance 

in, 6, 7 

Statistics of Universities in, 15 

-; Vernacular Schools the founda- 
tion of Public Instruction, 5 
Inspection, System of, in France, 140 



Inspectors in France, 140 
Invemess-shire, Scarcity of schools in, 46 
Ireland, Agricultural Schools in, 71, 72 

Building Grants in, difficulties 

regarding, 60 

Compulsory School Attendance 

in, 72 

Denominational Training Col- 

leges in, 70 

Free Education in, 72, 73 

Model Schools in, 71 

Monitorial System in, 69 

National Education in, 5(5-73 

National Education in, and its 

results, 57-(;0 

Organisers of Schools appointed, 

69 

Pay of Teachers in, 63, 64 

Protestant Charter Schools esta- 
blished, 56 

Protestant Diocesan Schools esta- 

blished, 56 

Queen's Scholars in, 69, 70 

Results-Fees, Scale of, 67, 68 

Results System in, 66 

School Books in, difficulties re- 

garding, 60 

School Books in, supply of, 70. 71 

School Inspection, 62, 63 

School Management in, 61, 62 

Training of Teachers in, 69, 70 

Italy. Attendance compulsory in Schools,7S 

Instruction gratuitous, 78 

Religious instruction in Schools, 

75 



Jews, Female education advanced in 
France by the, 125 

Kansas gives municipal rights to women, 

129 
Kildare Place Society, 57 
Kindergarten, Advanced, 142, 143 

Mr. Ricks' exercises for, 143 

System in United States, 87 

Lakakel's scheme of national education, 
120 

Lancaster, Joseph, 26 

Lancastrian Society, 26 

Lexington, First State Normal School 
established at, 101 

Limonnier, Madame, 122, 123 

London Chamber of Commerce and Com- 
mercial Education, 114 



174 



INDEX. 



Louis Philippe, No primary State instruc- 
tion for girls under, 121 
Lyceums, Girls', 126 

Macaxjlay, Lord, Minute of 1835, 4: 
Maintenon, Madame de, founds St. Cyr, 

119 
Manitoba, Education compulsory in, 108 

Education free in, 108 

Manual training, 159-161 

. Advantage of, 141 

in France, 142 

Lord Armstrong on, 142 

Objectors to, 142 

Mardthds, The, 10, 11, 18, 19 

Mayo, Lord, and his de-centralisation 

scheme of Finance, 12, 13 
Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Helena, Princess 

of, 121 
Medici, Catherine de, 118 
Monitorial System in Ireland, 69 
Montreal, Education not free in, 108 

Schools in, 106 

Mosques and education, 3 

Musulman influence in India destroyed by 
State education, 7, 8 



National Society, 26 
New Brunswick, Education not compul- 
sory in, 108 

. Schools in, unsectarian, 107 

Newcastle's, Duke of, Commission, Eeport 

of, 29 
New South Wales, Education not free in, 

109 
New Zealand, Education free in, 109 
Northcote's, Sir Stafford, despatch, the 

Charter of Education in India, 5 
Norway, Attendance compulsory in 
schools, 77, 78 

Instruction gratuitous, 78 

. Religious instruction in schools, 

75 
Nova Scotia, Education compulsory in, 
108 
Education free in, 108 



O^TTARIO, Education compulsory in, 108 
Education free in, 107 



Paris, Females in Medical schools of, 126 

the heaven of the Primary 

schoolmistress, 128 



Paris, Technical Schools for girls in, 122 
Payment on results, and Technical Edu- 
cation, 133-145 

Evils of, 36-38 

Philadelphia, High School for Girls at, 

101 

Women's Guilds in, 129 

Prince Edward Island, Education compul- 
sory in, 108 

Education free in, 108 

Public Instruction, Committee of. in 
India, 4 

Pupil-Teacher system introduced in Eng- 
land, 28 

Pupil-teachers under Code, 1890, 150, 151 



Quebec, Education not compulsory in, 
108 

Education not free in, 108 

Queensland, Education free in, 109 
Queen's scholars in Ireland, 69, 70 

scholarships, 39, 40 

Quinet, Edgar, 121 



Racine at St. Cyr, 119 
Pi.eligion in India. 19 

Religious instruction in Belgian Schools, 
74, 75 

in Board Schools in England, 34, 

35, 76 

in Church of England Schools, 76 

in Danish Schools, 75 

in French Schools, 75, 76 

in German Schools, 74 

in Italian Schools, 75 

in Norwegian Schools, 75 

in Roman Catholic Schools in 

England, 76, 77 
• in Swedish Schools, 75 

in Swiss Schools, 74 

Ricks', Mr., exercises for advanced Kin- 
dergarten, 143 

Ripon, Lord, Education Commission of, 
13-18 



School Attendance Committees, 41 

Attendance in Belgium not com- 

pulsory, 78 

Attendance compulsory in Eng- 
land, 78 

. Attendance compulsory in France, 

78 

Attendance compulsory in Ger- 

many, 77 



INDEX. 



175 



School Attendance compulsory in Ire- 
land, 72 

Attendance compulsory in Italy, 

78 

Attendance compulsory in Nor- 

way, 77, 78 

Attendance compulsory in Swe- 

den, 77 
■ Attendance compulsory in Swit- 
zerland, 78 

Attendance compulsory in the 

United States, 96 

Attendance in India, statistics of, 

C, 7 

Boards in England, 33-35 

Boards, City, in United States, 84 

Books in Ireland, difficulties 

regarding, 60 

Books in Ireland, supply of, 70, 71 

Common, in America, 83 

Common, in United States, in- 

struction confined to secular 
subjects, 97 

Common, in United States, open 

to all classes, 86 

High, in United States, rule as to 

admission, 90 

High, in United States, special 

studies of, 92 

High, in United States and in 

England, contrasted, 92 

Inspection in Ireland, <')2, 63 

Management in Ireland, 61-62 

Teachers in Ireland, pay of, 63, 

64 

Teachers in Ireland, training of, 

69-70 

Teachers in United States, train- 

ing of, '.)9-102 
Schools, Agricultural, in Ireland, 71, 72 

Belgian, and religious instruc- 

tion, 74, 75 

Board, in England, cost of, 35 

Burgh, in Scotland, 47 

Burgh, in Scotland, defects of, 

48, 49 

Church of England, and religious 

instruction, 76 

Danish, and religious instruc- 

tion, 75 

Day Industrial, in England, 42 

Elementary, in Ontario, free, 107 

English, absence of physical 

training in, 79, 80 

in England, grants to, 36-38 

English Board, and religious in- 

struction, 34, 35, 76 



Schools, English and Continental, 
Matthew Arnold on, 134, lo.") 

Evening, under Code, 1890... 1 53 

^— French, and religious instruc- 
tion, 75, 76 

German, and religious instruc- 

tion, 74 

Grammar, in England, 25, 26 

Grammar, in Scotland, 45 

Grammar, in United States. 87, 

88 

High, in Ontario, free, 107 

High, in United States, 88-95 

Higher, in Scotland, 51, .)2 

Indigenous, in the Punjab, 13 

Indigenous, the basis of the 

Dept. of Public Instruction 
in Lower Provinces of India, 1 3 

Italian, and religious instruction, 

75 

Model, in Ireland, 71 

Model, in Ontario, free, 107 

Normal, in United States, 100 

Norwegian, and religious in- 

struction, 75 

Parish, in Scotland. 45-49 

Primary, in United States, 87, 88 

Protestant Charter established in 

Ireland, 56 

Protestant Diocesan, established 

in Ireland, 56 

Question of free, 145 

Roman Catholic, in England, 

and religious instruction, 76, 
77 

Secondary in India, 6 

Secondary State, recommended 

by Condorcet, 120 

Small, under Code, 1890. ..153,154 

Swedish, and religious instruc- 

tion, 75 

Swiss, and religious instruction, 

74 

Technical, for girls in Paris, 122 

• Trade, in Germany, 80 

• Training, in England, 81 

Truants, in England, 43 

• Voluntary, and payment by re- 
sults, 139 
Science teaching in schools, 143 

Importance of, 135 

Scotland, and free education, 55 

Burgh Schools in, 47 

Burgh Schools in, defects of, 48. 

49 
Elementary education in, 44-55 

Grammar Schools in, 45 



1/6 



INDEX. 



Scotland, Gratuitous instruction in, 79 
■ Higher Schools in, 51, 52 

Parish Schools in, 45-49 

Schools Inquiry Commission of 

1864... 48, 49 

Universities of, 53, 54 

See, Camille, 125 

Sevigne, Madame de, 118 

Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
ledge, 26 

State Board of Education in United 
States, function of, 85 

Sweden, Instruction gratuitous in, 78 

Keligious instruction in schools, 

75 

School attendance compulsory 

in, 77 
Switzerland, Instruction gratuitous in, 78 

Eeligious instruction in schools, 

74 

School attendance compulsory 

in, 78 



Talleyrand, and his scheme for public 

instruction, 119 
Tasmania, Education not free in, 109 
Teachers' Institute in United States, 101, 
102 

Salaries of, in France, 127 

Technical and Secondary Education, As- 
sociation for Promotion of, 137 

Instruction, 133-145, 159-161 

Instruction, Eoyal Commission 

on, 1881... 133 

Schools for girls in Paris, 122 

Toronto, University of, education almost 

gratuitous at, 108 
Training Colleges in Ontario free, 107 



United States, Absence of physical 
training in schools of, 79 

and compulsory school attend- 

ance, 96 

and English systems of education 

compared, 82-104 

and religious school instruction, 

98 

City School Boards in, 84 

Common Schools, instruction 

confined to secular subjects, 97 

Common School in, open to all 

classes, 86 



United States, Common School system in, 
83 

CommonSchool universal in,84,85 

Each State responsible for the 

education of its population, 83 

Free boolcs and stationery move- 

ment in, 96 

Froebellian system in, 87 

G-rammar Schools in, 87, 88 

High Schools in, 88-95 

High Schools in, rule as to ad- 

mission, 90 

High School in, special studies 

of, 92 

• High School in, and in England 

contrasted, 92 

Instruction gratuitous in, 95 

Kindergarten system in, 87 

■ • Normal Schools in, 100 

Primary Schools in, 87, 88 

State Boards of Education in, 

83, 84 

State Board of Education, func- 

tion of, 85 

Teachers' Institute in, 101, 102 

Training of Teachers in, 99-102 

Universities in India, standards of the 

pass-examination, 15, 16 

Statistics of, 15 

Vernacular Schools in India the foun- 
dation of Public Instruction, 5 
Victoria, Education free in, 109 

Wahabi State Trials, 9 
Watson's College, Edinburgh, 53 
Women, and the French Revolution, 119 

Education and status of, 116-132 

Employed in Journalism, 131 

Guilds in Philadelphia, 129 

in France, 116-128 

Medical College at Chicago, 130 

Municipal rights in Kansas, 129 

Statistics of employment of, in 

France, 128 

Suffrage in United States, 129 

Women's Christian Temperance Union, 129 
Wyoming, Territory of. Woman's Suffrage 

in, 129 

YOLANDE, Queen of Sicily, 117 
Young's, Lord, Scotch Education Act of 
1872. ..49 



BRADBURY, AONEW, & CO., PRINTER.?, WHITEKRIAB.S. 



